★★★ VHS - Kahloucha

[Gino: 3.0, Twinkletoes: 2.5]

Gino says: "This is not a great documentary in the sense that you don't really get swept along in the 'story' and it felt a lot longer than it was. But it accomplishes a lot. Namely, it portrays an extremely dedicated person (in this case a film-maker, by some literal definitions anyway) under difficult conditions. Kahloucha, himself employed as a house painter, lives in a tough neighborhood of Sousse, Tunisia, where unemployment is endemic. He gets his movies made by any means necessary. I can't imagine a situation in which this guy has even seen many films at all, outside of maybe on TV. Secondly, the film shows a world so very different than ours of DVDs and multiplexes, etc. A world in which people still love films. Thirdly it tangentally has humorous things to say about hollywood (e.g. when the subject tries to stop people from copying the VHS copies of his film, to protect his investment.)"

Twinkletoes says: "I’ll agree with Gino on all of his points, especially the one about this film seeming longer than it was. Its 80 minutes literally felt like 2 hours. While it certainly had its merits but I can’t really give it an even lukewarm 3.0 rating."