we are the giant
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we are the giant” is both vital and devastating, with raw material conveyed through elegant construction. ”
“' we are the giant’ is another prima facie document in the unfolding foreign drama of our time—one that could entirely refashion international relations. the subjects…are deeply inspiring figures. ”
powerful, tragic and ultimately inspirational, we are the giant follows the everyday decisions that transform not just individual lives but the fates of nations. as their stories echo across history, the characters in we are the giant speak directly to our own lives, reminding us that we are all products of revolutions, and offering hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds .
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we are the giant / u. s. a. , united kingdom (director: greg barker) — we are the giant tells the stories of ordinary individuals who are transformed by the moral and personal challenges they encounter when standing up for what they believe is right. powerful and tragic, yet inspirational, their struggles for freedom echo across history and offer hope against seemingly impossible odds .
“we are the giant” is both vital and devastating, with raw material conveyed through elegant construction. barker asks the hard questions, issuing the frightening possibly of necessary violence when pacifism yields no results .
the project came about when director greg barker approached me at the mill to create the graphics and the visual look of his latest documentary we are the giant. we had an existing working relationship, as last year i designed the titles and graphics for his documentary manhunt: the search for bin laden .
“slickly assembled and insightful. compelling and fluidly told stories of the struggle of individuals. the rather abstract and complex subject of the arab spring is given a human face…in the slickly assembled “we are the giant. ” (the first story is) both inspiring and sobering. ”
i remember visiting the museum as a child and being amazed when i came face to face with the blue whale skeleton we are now unveiling in hintze hall .
' nay!' answered the child;' but these are the wounds of love.'
directed by sundance veteran greg barker, produced by john battsek and julie goldman and co - produced by arab - american filmmaker razan ghalayini, we are the giant was filmed largely in secret and sometimes at great risk over the past two and a half years .
“ (' we are the giant') is actually a documentary feature film about nonviolent resistance through the lens of revolutionaries in syria, bahrain and libya, ” said ghalayini, referring to the protests and uprisings beginning in 2010 that came to be known as the arab spring .
“we are the giant” profiles seven activists involved in various national uprisings of the arab spring, several of whom already have high international profiles; some are now deceased or imprisoned. a surfeit of harrowing on - the - ground footage during protest crackdowns, plus the protagonists’ testimonies, make for a frequently inspiring and exciting documentary. but helmer greg barker [ … ]
given how reluctant pandas are to breed, it may seem misguided to fund their conservation. but there' s a reason we spend so much money .
for me, it’s about the power of the subject matter. you cannot cut corners with research and development as the truth of the film needs to come first. any flourish or embellishment of fact diminishes the film. with both we are the giant and manhunt, research was paramount and all - encompassing .
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all day long they played, and in the evening they came to the giant to bid him good - bye .
and when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms .
the heart of every revolution is a human one, the signs written by hand. in we are the giant, director greg barker delivers a devastating account of the arab spring, intimately focused on the stories of fathers, mothers, sons, daughters – revolutionaries – across libya, syria, and bahrain with an eye to the world .
the clarion call of a grander moral calling anchors the documentary we are the giant, and in large part saves it from its own overstuffed passion. profiling a handful of activists involved in arab spring uprisings in libya, syria and bahrain, the film mixes unsettling firsthand protest footage with involving stories of self - sacrifice .
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every afternoon, when school was over, the children came and played with the giant. but the little boy whom the giant loved was never seen again. the giant was very kind to all the children, yet he longed for his first little friend, and often spoke of him.' how i would like to see him!' he used to say .
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every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the giant' s garden .
' we don' t know,' answered the children;' he has gone away.'
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' you must tell him to be sure and come here to - morrow,' said the giant. but the children said that they did not know where he lived, and had never seen him before; and the giant felt very sad .
he natural history museum in london has unveiled its new star, a giant blue whale skeleton called hope .
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' who art thou?' said the giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child .
“the buried giant” is a melancholy book, and the mist that breathes through it is a melancholic mist. the narrative tone is dreamlike and measured. there are adventures, sword fights, betrayals, armies, cunning stratagems and monsters killed, but these things are told distantly, without the book’s pulse ever beating faster. they are described unflinchingly, precisely, sometimes poetically. enemies are slain, but the deaths are never triumphant. a culmination of a planned trap for a troop of soldiers, worthy of a whodunit, is described in retrospect, once we already know what must have happened. stories drift toward us in the narrative like figures in the mist, and then are gone. the excitements that the book would deliver were this a more formulaic or crowd - pleasing novel are, here, when they appear, not exciting, perhaps because they would be young people’s adventures, and this is, at its heart, a book about two people who are now past all adventure. axl and beatrice, gentle and caring and kind, wish only to survive, to reach their son, to be together. they need to remember their past, but they are afraid of what those memories might bring them .
as acting president of the bahrain center for human rights, al - khawaja is one of the leading voices in “we are the giant, ” along with her sister zainab al - khawaja. maryam al - khawaja has been banned from her country of bahrain for participating in peaceful protests against the existing regime. her sister and father, internationally acclaimed human rights activist abdulhadi al - khawaja, are both serving prison sentences for their non - violent acts of resistance .
lue whales are now making a recovery following decades of exploitation that nearly drove them out of existence .
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' what are you doing here?' he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away .
there are quite a few, but the title sequence that drew me to make the jump from print design to motion was dawn of the dead .
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“we were watching history happen before us, and greg sat down next to me and he was like, ‘this is insane! ’ and we were looking around and we were among the only two people in this massive office of like 50 who were paying attention to this. and greg and i started talking and we said, ‘you know what? nobody is going out there to make a film about this right now. ’”
there is a moment in director greg barker’s documentary “ we are the giant ” when we are confronted by a young girl singing a sweet song of revolution in arabic, while a peaceful protest against the syrian government unfolds in the streets behind her. her smile is wide and her voice lovely until a blast erupts no more than a yard behind her, the camera swerving as smoke billows and mangled figures lurch around in confusion. perhaps mercifully, we never see what has become of the girl; within the same reel, there is another senseless massacre, as one man hoarsely shouts amidst a barrage of bullets, flanked by dead bodies. “it was peaceful! ” he cries out, unable to understand what prompted the police to open fire .
' but where is your little companion?' he said:' the boy i put into the tree.' the giant loved him the best because he had kissed him .
in we are the giant ordinary citizens face the same moral questions that have defined revolutionary leaders across the ages, from jefferson to che to mandela. with remarkable access, the film takes its audience inside the lives of six extraordinary people who grapple with the agonizing and universal dilemmas at the heart of all struggles for justice and freedom: whether to take up arms and fight, or to advocate change through peace and non - violence .
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but that future looks uncertain, if the finances are anything to go by. keeping giant pandas has become prohibitively expensive. contrary to the popular impression, the chinese government does not offer pandas to foreign dignitaries, or zoos, as gifts; in fact, all pandas sent out from china are on paid loan and, as notes to the naturkunde show tell us, “with a loan rate of €1m per annum, this exceeds the budget of many zoos”. at present, the number of pandas kept outside china is 162 overall, with 55 of them living in 19 zoos across the world. there are roughly 1, 600 giant pandas still living in china, the number confined to mountainous regions of the south - west .
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the passion and idealism that fuel both successful and attempted revolutions provide the human focus of greg barker ’s “we are the giant, ” a dramatic account of people active in the movements sparked by the arab spring. looking at two people each in libya, syria and bahrain, the film doesn’t try to explain the political background or complexities of these societies but instead offers haunting, up - close portraits of individuals who elect to put their nations’ fates above their own .
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ichard sabin, the museum’s leading whale expert, said :
whales are incredibly mysterious and behaviourally complex creatures, as well as being the giants of the ocean .
so he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. but when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became winter again. only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he died not see the giant coming. and the giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. and the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the giant' s neck, and kissed him. and the other children, when they saw that the giant was not wicked any longer, came running back, and with them came the spring.' it is your garden now, little children,' said the giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. and when the people were gong to market at twelve o' clock they found the giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen .
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' who hath dared to wound thee?' cried the giant;' tell me, that i may take my big sword and slay him.'
what we should be doing is saving habitats, not single species, no matter what their cuteness factor. and scrapping all kinds of other pointless activities, from huge arms contracts to self - defeating agribusiness and energy subsidies, and using the money saved to undo the damage we have done to the land and seas around us. that way, we would have lots of cash to stop the destruction of forests and peatlands, and even a few million on the side for such quixotic projects as saving the panda. because these animals are worth it. hunted for sport by the rich, then driven from large tracts of its natural habitat by agricultural and housing development, the giant panda deserves better than to be scrubbed from conservation’s ledger books through false accounting .
years went over, and the giant grew very old and feeble. he could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, and watched the children at their games, and admired his garden.' i have many beautiful flowers,' he said;' but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.'
2. when hemsworth pees on a dead alien, it’s inside a giant alien forest that is inside of a ufo large enough to cover much of the atlantic ocean .
6. before the movie begins, we learn an
african warlord
spent 10 years fighting the aliens in hand - to - hand combat. (frankly, this is the movie that should have been made, but c’est la vie .) in the movie, we see warlord dikembe umbutu murder an alien with two machetes .
ishiguro is not afraid to tackle huge, personal themes, nor to use myths, history and the fantastic as the tools to do it. “the buried giant” is an exceptional novel, and i suspect my inability to fall in love with it, much as i wanted to, came from my conviction that there was an allegory waiting like an ogre in the mist, telling us that no matter how well we love, no matter how deeply, we will always be fallible and human, and that for every couple who are aging together, one or the other of them — of us — will always have to cross the water, and go on to the island ahead and alone .
“we are the giant” profiles seven activists involved in various national uprisings of the arab spring, several of whom already have high international profiles; some are now deceased or imprisoned. a surfeit of harrowing on - the - ground footage during protest crackdowns, plus the protagonists’ testimonies, make for a frequently inspiring and exciting documentary. but helmer greg barker (“ghosts of rwanda”) also risks pretentiousness in various forms of stylistic and thematic overreach, while providing viewers scant explanatory info on the regional conflicts. this u. s. - u. k. co - production will have an easier time scoring broadcast sales in the latter territory; elsewhere, exposure will be spotty beyond fest travel .
putting our blue whale, hope, at the centre of the museum, between living species on the west and extinct species on the east, is a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and the responsibility we have towards our planet .
my favorite book from ishiguro so far which is saying something since i given 5 stars to when we where orphans and the remains of the day is on my favorites list .
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the elderly couple are axl and beatrice — “perhaps these were not their exact or full names, but for ease, this is how we will refer to them” — who start out living in a hill - warren village, ill treated by their fellow britons. axl and beatrice love each other deeply and care for each other as best they can. beatrice has a malady, a pain in her side she insists is nothing serious, for which she seeks a cure. they have reached the age when their memories have become unreliable, when names, faces and even events slip away. but the problems with memory and event are not just theirs; all the people in their community, and even those in neighboring villages, briton and saxon, appear to be having the same difficulties. there is a mist that takes memories: good memories and bad, lost children, old rancors and wounds. and memories are valuable. they make us who we are .
indeed, the lethal finality of those dangers is central to the first story, about libya. we quickly learn that one of the two figures who are the focus of this account, 20 - year - old muhannad ben - sadik, was killed in the attempt to overthrow dictator moammar ghadhafi. his story is told by his colleagues and the tale’s other protagonist, his father, osama ben - sadik .
' i cannot understand why the spring is so late in coming,' said the selfish giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden;' i hope there will be a change in the weather.'
bookending each of the three segments – libya and syria are the first two entries, with bahrain taking up the greater part of the documentary’s 90 - minute running time – is a kaleidoscopic overview of revolutions from throughout history. images of tiananmen square and the african american civil rights movement glide across the screen, all punctuated by quotations from transformational figures ranging from thomas jefferson to martin luther king, jr. far from overreaching, “we are the giant” implements the framing device organically, with the filmmakers’ idea for equating the arab spring with all of humanity’s great revolutions clearly born from how their subjects constantly reference those from history who inspired them to act. it turns material that could have resulted in a sporadic narrative into a profound statement that the arab spring is a continuation of humanity’s constant efforts to make a better, more just world .
and the child smiled on the giant, and said to him,' you let me play once in your garden, to - day you shall come with me to my garden, which is paradise.'
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the raindrops of our memories “but then again i wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn' t like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. i' m wondering if without our memories, there' s nothing for it but for our love to fade and die. ” k. ishiguro, the buried giant there are times, i think, one must admit bewilderment and a certain lack of knowledge or learning to fully understand some novels, but can nonetheless say tha
the raindrops of our memories “but then again i wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn' t like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. i' m wondering if without our memories, there' s nothing for it but for our love to fade and die. ” k. ishiguro, the buried giant there are times, i think, one must admit bewilderment and a certain lack of knowledge or learning to fully understand some novels, but can nonetheless say that the story impacted him; that, in a relatively short read, he inhabited the phenomenal, yet surreal, atmosphere of dense fog that enveloped the terrain and the faded memories of the protagonist medieval married couple (and of all the population in the mystical land); that he felt for the couple and their lost memories and, most importantly, that he has a deeper understanding, from having read this book, of how much memories are a significant part of who we are and of our love for those in our lives, and yet at the same time our love is more than memories: true love is in our souls and as long as we can see and know those we love, our love will not die, in spite of our vanishing remembrances. i know this sounds mawkish. yet, because i cannot articulate to you exactly why i found the story so profound, i am left to conveying my impressions, however sentimental they may seem .
we are t he giant transports viewers to the front lines of the arab spring through the courageous stories of six extraordinary people grappling with the dilemma at the heart of all struggles for justice and freedom: whether to take up arms and fight, or to advocate change through peace and non - violence. filming largely in secret and at great risk over the past two and a half years, award - winning director and former war correspondent greg barker (manhunt) frames intimate portraits of individuals from very different walks of life resolving to stand up for what they believe in and challenge the oppressive regimes determined to crush popular uprisings .
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but the spring never came, nor the summer. the autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the giant' s garden she gave none.' he is too selfish,' she said. so it was always winter there, and the north wind, and the hail, and the frost, and the snow danced about through the trees .
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mobilizing in the streets in libya, syria and bahrain, as well as on facebook and twitter, inspired young activists have been awakening the world to their plight and changing the course of history. among these unlikely heroes are the outspoken sisters maryam and zainab alkhawaja (whose twitter handle “angry arabiya” has over 40, 000 followers), both fiercely determined to protest for human rights even under perpetual threat of imprisonment and exile. this timely documentary follows the everyday decisions that transform not just personal lives but the fates of nations, reminding us that we are all products of revolutions and offering hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds .
if nature is not a prison and earth a shoddy way - station, we must find the faith and force to affirm its metabolism as our own... to do so means nothing less than a shift in our whole frame of reference and our attitude toward life itself, a wider perception of the landscape as a creative, harmonious being where relationships of things are as real as the things. without losing our sense of a great human destiny and without intellectual surrender, we must affirm that the world is a being, a part of our own body .
the buried giant is a subtle and melancholy reflection on memory and forgetfulness and the roles they play both in the lives of individuals and those of countries and peoples. it is the kind of novel that yields up its secrets gradually, and it’s worth persisting with even if you are not initially convinced. it’s a very distinctive work—distinctive to the point of eccentricity—and the reviews have been accordingly mixed, some very negative. to enjoy it, you have to cede to its peculiar, incantat
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4. there’s an entire story about space pilots from across the world. the storyline works because the characters who speak languages that aren’t english are more than a dumb punchline, and because it basically doubles the film as a spiritual sequel to starship troopers .
so much for the gentle giant image. nevertheless, there is also pathos to be found in the museum’s account of his life story. when bao bao died in august 2012 at the age of 34, he was “the methuselah” of the giant pandas living in zoos. despite his long life, and many attempts to find him a mate, he remained without descendants – so far, at any rate: his sperm has been stored in a deep - freeze and is available for artificial insemination in the future .
syrian friends ghassan yassin and motaz murad committed themselves to peaceful resistance against assad’s tyranny, though the extreme brutality of the regime’s response — we see entire civilian neighborhoods bombed beyond recognition, dead children scattered among the rubble — eventually prompted the rise of the oppositional free syria army .
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“we were thinking about a way to tell a story about, not just the arab spring, but revolution as a whole, and the engaging and beautiful experience that is people standing up for themselves ,
ghalayini said .
and so one thing led to another and within three months i had called maryam and i was like, ‘hey, how are you? my name is razan, i’m working on a film, can i come visit you or something? ’ and she was like, ‘are you cia? what is this? ’”
3. the mega ufo has legs, like a spider legs but, you know, the size of a city. one of these legs dig into the east coast of the usa, and stops in the backyard of the recreation of the white house — destroyed in the first film. the city - sized leg of a giant ufo doesn' t totally destroy the most politically loaded building in the nation; it just knocks over the american flag on its roof .
and of course, such decisions depend on subjective assessment. as ishiguro shows in the course of this tale, if even happily married couples can hold vehemently differing perceptions of shared memories or objects seen in the distance, how can we hope all to agree on the right course of action in relation to major issues? the buried giant of the title is an allegory for the buried hatchet; the repression of hatreds, resentments and the desire for violent redress. it prevents justice being attained, but also impedes the never - ending cycle of tit - for - tat .
if there are rare moments in the buried giant when the plot does teeter into pastiche, and the swords and sorcery can seem a tad silly, then these are more than compensated for by a power and a strangeness that are, in the shakespearean sense of the word, weird. “there’s a journey we must go on, and no more delay …” it is surely no coincidence that these words of beatrice to her husband, displayed prominently on the book’s jacket, should echo the haunting final lines of kent in king lear: “i have a journey, sir, shortly to go. / my master calls me; i must not say no. ” old age and memory loss, suffering, love and war: what shakespeare explored in the eerie setting of pre - roman britain, ishiguro explores in the context of a period of history barely less mysterious. for all the deconstruction the buried giant performs on its manifold sources and inspirations, the ultimate measure of ishiguro’s achievement is that his novel is more than worthy to take its place alongside them. the quest undertaken by axl and beatrice is not merely a search for their son, but one that follows in the footsteps of sir gawain, and tennyson’s king arthur, and frodo. the novel’s parting assurance is affecting precisely because it is so hard - won: “but god will know the slow tread of an old couple’s love for each other, and understand how bleak shadows make part of its whole. ”
it was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach - trees that in the spring - time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. the birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them.' how happy we are here!' they cried to each other .
, “to get more investment bang for conservation’s few bucks we need to protect a far greater variety of species than one hardy creature struggling to eat bamboo up a mountain. ”
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downstairs ran the giant in great joy, and out into the garden. he hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. and when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said,' who hath dared to wound thee?' for on the palms of the child' s hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet .
what i feel, confronted with these photos, is not just a deep kinship, but also a form of continuity. we are here together and the only way to make ourselves at home is to share the land with these others, the animals which, as shepard remarked, make us human. this was a view held by many berliners back in the time of the wall, as von reiswitz recalled when we spoke at his studio: “during the time of the wall, the zoo was a sort of local recreational area for people from west berlin. this zoo was like a zoo inside a zoo during that time. so, people living in berlin were very close to these animals, because everybody was in a zoo. ”
there are many instances of that scar in barker’s remarkable documentary, an intensely moving account of the arab spring that focuses on the stories of prominent revolutionaries across three different countries: there is osama ben - sadik, a libyan man and virginia - resident whose son, american - born muhannad, leaves behind his life in the united states to join in the fight against muammar gaddafi. in syria we meet motaz murrad and ghassan yazzin, leaders of peace movements, both of them convinced that non - violent protests could inspire reform in the assad regime. then there are sisters maryam and zainab alkhawaja, who join their human activist father abdulhadi alkhawaja to fight against the dictatorship of the al khalifa family in bahrain by utilizing pacifist methods .
even when people are aware of their past misdeeds, can they expect forgiveness? in a scene in a monastery, wistan challenges a monk on the religious belief that prayer and self - flagellation will absolve crimes .
the self - sacrificing sense of moral necessity felt by the principals here is stirring, as are the numerous frightening sequences of street combat. (at one point someone’s camera records a little girl cheerfully singing a song, only to have the moment jolted by a shell explosion, the child’s well - being unknown in the ensuing haze. )
we took a day to do a mini - shoot, with a red epic, some plates of the burning and ink moments to have some original transitions. we filmed burns in front of green screen for the animators to eventually incorporate into the animations. i used textures, paint, type, ink, newspaper headlines, photocopies, etc. i thought it was important to stick to a monochromatic language which would evoke newspapers and old photographs .
the move isn’t nonsensical, in the capacity that a child could track what’s happening. there aren’t characters and storylines from a dozen other movies buttressing resurgence — you don’t even need to know the plot of the original. twenty years ago, aliens attacked earth. we won, built a harmonious global community, and advanced our weaponry for when they returned — which is now. how will we beat them this time? the answer is no less preposterous than its predecessor’s solution: a head cold .
as beatrice says: “if that’s how you’ve remembered it, axl, let it be the way it was. with this mist upon us, any memory’s a precious thing and we’d best hold tight to it. ”
one morning the giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. it sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the king' s musicians passing by. it was really only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. then the hail stopped dancing over his head, and the north wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement.' i believe the spring has come at last,' said the giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out .
as someone who has read all of ishiguro' s previous works i was of course more than excited to finally get my hands on a copy of the buried giant. oh boy, if only that excitement hadn' t been sourly crushed by the actual contents of this novel. the buried giant is very different from all of ishiguro' s other novels. in fact it' s so different that i can' t even compare it to any of his previous novels. the main difference is of course that this is essentially a fantasy novel. now i' ll be the first to
until 2015 the skeleton was hung alongside a model whale in the mammals gallery and wasn’t in full view, but in her stunning new home, where you are able to walk underneath and see her from all angles, she is even more spectacular .
oh boy, this is the book that caused such uproar among ishiguro fans! before you pick up this novel, please believe me when i say this is going to be nothing like any of his previous work. so if you are resistant to change, you might want to skip this one. don’t expect it to be the remains of the day, and definitely don’t think this is going to be the next never let me go. in fact this book won’t even be set in our own time or even plane of reality. on the surface of it all, the buried giant is
yet are you so certain, good mistress, you wish to be free of this mist? is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds ?
it may be so for some, father, but not for us. axl and i wish to have again the happy moments we shared together. to be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what' s most precious from us .
wrapped around the three accounts are slickly produced graphics (scored with soaring music) that invoke popular uprisings before and beyond the arab spring, from the american revolution to more recent upheavals in poland, south africa, china, burma and other countries. though the filmmakers rather dubiously intermix quotes from tyrants and murderers such as lenin and che guevara with others from democratic and non - violent figures including nelson mandela and martin luther king, jr. , the implicit point that all revolutions stem from a universal hunger for freedom is nicely offset by the specificity of the three stories we witness, which illustrate not just the commonalities but also the differences among recent revolts in the arab world .
nevertheless, ishiguro is too subtle and complex a novelist to rest content with such a message. the memory loss that may serve a troubled people as a blessing cannot help but threaten the individual with the dissolution of his or her self. at the heart of the buried giant, luminous amid all the dragons and warring knights, is a deeply affecting portrait of marital love, and of how even the most precious memories can end up vulnerable. axl and beatrice are an aged couple who, in the grip of the mysterious amnesia that has afflicted the whole of britain, abruptly decide to visit a son that they had forgotten so much as existed. in the course of their journey, they meet a boatman in the ruins of a roman villa, whose duty it is to ferry people to an island of the dead. only if a couple can convince him of their devotion will he allow them to travel together. from that moment on, axl and beatrice are haunted by a dread that they would fail such a test, and be separated for ever. “axl and i wish to have again the happy moments we shared together. to be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what’s most precious from us. ”
one day the giant came back. he had been to visit his friend the cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. after the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. when he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden .
you' ve long set your heart against it, axl, i know. but it' s time now to think on it anew. there' s a journey we must go on, and no more delay ...
the buried giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years. sometimes savage, often intensely moving, kazuo ishiguro' s first novel in nearly a decad
then the spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. only in the garden of the selfish giant it was still winter. the birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice - board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. the only people who were pleased were the snow and the frost.' spring has forgotten this garden,' they cried,' so we will live here all the year round.' the snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the frost painted all the trees silver. then they invited the north wind to stay with them, and he came. he was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney - pots down.' this is a delightful spot,' he said,' we must ask the hail on a visit.' so the hail came. every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. he was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice .
in itself, this promiscuous mixing of influences and periods within a fantasy novel is hardly original to ishiguro. george rr martin, for instance, has always performed it with particular aplomb, fusing plot lines drawn from the wars of the roses with locations that plainly draw on hadrian’s wall or the steppes of genghis khan. the buried giant, though, unlike a song of ice and fire, makes play with the gaps and the seams. they are designed to show. the shimmering of literary influences within ishiguro’s prose is like that of memories within a fading mind: fragments shored against ruin. yet always, haunting the novel, lurks the possibility that the memories themselves may be false. the buried giant cannot help but exist in the shadow of the near - total oblivion that has claimed the period ishiguro is writing about. one character worries that god himself may be afflicted by amnesia – “and if a thing is not in god’s mind, then what chance of it remaining in those of mortal men? ” ishiguro is less certain than tolkien that what has been forgotten can be redeemed .
for the title sequence itself i worked with a very small team. the mill' s team consisted of three animators – justin sucara, victor duncan, and greg park – who did a brilliant job of bringing the designs, textures, and concept to life, two producers, and myself as the sole designer and director. i also worked with the film' s editor, josh altman, who was a fundamental shorthand. we were all eager to make the best of this project as we knew what a great film this is. everyone gave it their best and we made an extremely demanding delivery of 13: 22 minutes of full - on design and animation in roughly 4 weeks. with a project like this, it' s a true labor of love with all involved !
but the immediacy of such scenes isn’t really helped by all the filigree barker imposes to provide a big - picture perspective. there are innumerable overly fussy black - and - white graphics interludes (by vfx outfit the mill) mashing up imagery and headlines from practically every historical freedom struggle imaginable. adding yet more onscreen text are too many quotes encompassing everyone from jesus to che guevara, mao tsetung, martin luther king jr. , nelson mandela and joseph stalin. of course the issues involved in arab spring uprisings are universal, but so much extraneous material seems to suggest that viewers won’t grasp that unless they’re hammered with reminders of more familiar, similar fights closer to home. at the same time, the pic provides little of the specific backgrounding that would make it more accessible to those not already well versed in contemporary middle eastern politics .
' my own garden is my own garden,' said the giant;' any one can understand that, and i will allow nobody to play in it but myself.' so he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice - board.
we are the giant is a 2014 american documentary film produced and directed by greg barker . the film had its world premiere at 2014 sundance film festival on january 18 , 2014 . the film is scheduled for a limited theatrical run from october 30 , 2014 in uk . a special screening and panel q&a will also take place at london 's bfi cinema on the october 30 , 2014 . 
we are the giant is a 2014 american documentary film produced and directed by greg barker. the film had its world premiere at 2014 sundance film festival on january 18, 2014. the film is scheduled for a limited theatrical run from october 30, 2014 in uk. a special screening and panel q&a will also take place at london's bfi cinema on the october 30, 2014.
we are the giant is a 2014 american documentary film produced and directed by greg barker. the film had its world premiere at 2014 sundance film festival on january 18, 2014. the film is scheduled for a limited theatrical run from october 30, 2014 in uk. a special screening and panel q&a will also take place at london's bfi cinema on the october 30, 2014.