Director: Greg Barker
We Are The Giant
Rating: 4.5/5
If you are looking for a powerful and inspiring movies to check out this weekend then make sure that you check out the documentary We Are The Giant: a movie that has been whipping up a storm on the festival circuit since it was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
We Are The Giant sees Greg Barker back in the director's chair for the first time since Manhunt. Barker is no stranger to this genre of film, with the likes of Koran By Heart and Sergio also under his belt over the years.
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.
2014 has been another terrific year for documentary movies, and We Are The Giant is one of the standout films in this genre that I have seen this year - if you are a fan of this genre of movie, this is a film that you really have to see.
It is not often that the veil is lifted on brutal and oppressive regimes, but We Are The Giants is a movie that bucks that trend as Barker has collected a series of remarkable and candid interviews that paint a picture of what life is like during the Arab-Spring.
All those who feature in the movie face a brutal regime determined to crush them into submission, and each makes very different, painful choices that come to define themselves - and their struggles. This is a movie about standing up for what you believe in, fighting back, and asks whether a peaceful campaign will inevitably become violent.
We Are The Giant is one of those movie that will truly make your blood boil when you hear these stories and get a better understanding of the lives that these people are forced to live. Barker does more than scratches the surface of these stories, he takes audiences deep into that world, getting more and more complex with each individual story that he tells.
The stories are mixed with on the ground footage that is hard-hitting and unflinching as well as being incredibly moving and powerful and it is the bravery of the people who have offered up their stories that really make this movie possible and what it is.
We Are The Giant is a movie that follows good people and how they can be pushed to the brink of violence and actions that they could never have envisioned as they fight for their cause and what they believe in.
We Are The Giant is a very powerful and haunting movie that is one of the best documentaries that I have seen so far this year. This is a movie that takes us into a world that we don't understand and lifts the lid on daily struggle and what people are willing to do to bring that struggle to an end.