All the Invisible Children
Tanza and Blue Gypsy
Introduction
The Invisible Children is a collection of seven short films, each by a different director. These films bring to light the various forms of child exploitation around the world in today’s modern society. Tanza, directed by Mehdi Charef, focuses on child soldiers in Africa and Blue Gypsy, directed by Emire Kusturica, follows the story of a young boy in a detention centre. Each director has a different way of portraying their theme to the audience such as the use of symbolism, setting, structure, and the creation of mood.
Symbolism
The first instance of symbolism that we see in Tanza is the close up of tanzas shoes showing how a child has to fill out adult shoes. We also see that the shoes were made for adult soldiers and that a child is made to wear them. We also see examples of Tanzas childhood being taken away from him as he pulls out a slingshot and then finds his pencils, new and wrapped in cloth. This shows that he wasn’t able to use them and never got to experience being a child.
Blue gypsy uses symbolism in the form of a turkey. At the start we see a flashback of the boy being hit over the head with a bottle by his father and we can hear the sounds of the turkey in the background. In this example the turkey is being used to represent negative emotions and feelings. At the end of the film we see him back in the detention centre and the turkey is heard again. The turkey is being associated with positive feelings and emotions. This could represent him letting go of his father as he is back in the detention centre where he wants to be.
Setting
Charef shows an African desert landscape in his film, showing the young, heavily armed, freedom fighters running across the desert planes. We get the impression that it is hot as Tanza is set in the dessert and we can tell from the type of clothing. Kusturicas setting is quite different as it is set in Germany and has more of a