Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
The 10 Conditions of Love
March 1st 2010 12:05
by Matt Shea
It’s difficult to think of a more controversial recent film than The 10 Conditions of Love. The work generated a storm of debate at the last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, becoming a major headache for festival organisers.
After the posting of the initial schedule, representatives of the Chinese government contacted MIFF director Richard Moore, demanding The 10 Conditions of Love be removed from the festival. Naturally, Moore and his associates stood their ground, and soon there were reported death threats and a full scale hacking of the MIFF website. Ticket sales were halted and the festival ended up losing at least $50,000 in sales.
Later in the year, ABC Television, the Australian national broadcaster, managed to stir up even more debate when they delayed indefinitely a planned December 17 airing of the documentary. Suddenly ABC MD Mark Scott found himself in front of the Australian Senate, the target of pointed questions from Greens senator Bob Brown.
Coming into 2010 and we’re now finally seeing a general release of the film. Umbrella Entertainment, who had originally planned to release The 10 Conditions of Love the day after its ABC airing, are now rolling out the DVD of the documentary through Borders from March 1. It’s a welcome move, and long overdue.
Of course, all the controversy ultimately puts the quality of the actual film under a more intense spotlight. Has it been worth all the contentious debate? Perhaps, but probably not quite.
The 10 Conditions of Love follows the struggle of Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the Uyghur, and her campaign for her people’s human rights. The Uygher come from the part of China known as Xinjiang Province, a territory formerly called East Turkistan and annexed by the Chinese in 1949.
Kadeer was once the richest woman in China and a Uygher cultural ambassador to the National People’s Congress. But when she refused to toe the party line she soon found herself followed, then imprisoned, and finally in exile in the United States.
Since then Kadeer has quickly grown in political stature, picking up powerful allies both in the US and throughout the western world. Her attacks on her former government are precise and fearless, but the Chinese have responded by accusing Kadeer of terrorism and imprisoning members of her family.
It is well and truly a battle of David versus Goliath, and if the MIFF experience proves anything it’s that Kadeer probably has the upper hand in the modern world of instant media, slicing up the Chinese case through a thousand tiny cuts.
Jeff Daniels’s (no, not that Jeff Daniels) documentary is of course another belt of ammunition in Kadeer’s fight for human rights, but it’s actually a fairly by-the-numbers made-for-television effort that probably would have floated by with nary a skerrick of coverage if hadn’t been for the quivering trigger finger of China’s state apparatus.
Daniels’s biggest problem is his failure to build a clear portrait of Kadeer. The audience never really gets to know this indignant, fearless and truly intimidating woman. We don’t even get a blow-by-blow of her self-made ten conditions of love – strange, given it’s the title of the film.
Indeed, there’s a sense that Daniels has attempted to squeeze too much into his sub-60 minute running time: for all the material he tries to cover, you suspect a feature length documentary would have been better – the subject certainly deserves it.
Still, Daniels also aims to inform you about the situation in the former East Turkistan, and this he does despite the almost overwhelming amount of information tackled. The filmmaker’s substantial narration certainly helps to piece together all the different strands of the story, even if it sometimes feels like a made-for-school overview, something your teacher puts on as an introduction to a new term subject.
Hinting at what could and should have been are the film’s poignant moments with Kadeer’s US-based daughter. The imprisonment of her siblings back in China too much to take, she clearly disagrees with her mother’s prioritisation of countrymen and women over family. And yet, once again, this personal aspect of the Kadeer struggle is never expanded upon, an obvious conflict remaining hidden from the audience.
Ultimately, this is a film that you admire more than appreciate. Daniels is still a young and relatively inexperienced filmmaker, and perhaps with a few more runs on the board he would have done things a little differently. 10 Conditions of Love’s existence is important, however, highlighting both the human rights violations of a forgotten people and the draconian nature of a government that is keen to leverage its worldwide economic importance to daub over bad press.
I say: An important film, but not necessarily a great one. But bravo to Umbrella for taking on its release.
See it for: Kadeer’s impassioned, uncompromising speech on Radio Free Asia, detailed in one of the final scenes. It’s enough to make any free speech-suspicious Chinese official shit their pants.
*This image is from the East Turkistan Australian Association
It’s difficult to think of a more controversial recent film than The 10 Conditions of Love. The work generated a storm of debate at the last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, becoming a major headache for festival organisers.
After the posting of the initial schedule, representatives of the Chinese government contacted MIFF director Richard Moore, demanding The 10 Conditions of Love be removed from the festival. Naturally, Moore and his associates stood their ground, and soon there were reported death threats and a full scale hacking of the MIFF website. Ticket sales were halted and the festival ended up losing at least $50,000 in sales.
Later in the year, ABC Television, the Australian national broadcaster, managed to stir up even more debate when they delayed indefinitely a planned December 17 airing of the documentary. Suddenly ABC MD Mark Scott found himself in front of the Australian Senate, the target of pointed questions from Greens senator Bob Brown.
Coming into 2010 and we’re now finally seeing a general release of the film. Umbrella Entertainment, who had originally planned to release The 10 Conditions of Love the day after its ABC airing, are now rolling out the DVD of the documentary through Borders from March 1. It’s a welcome move, and long overdue.
Of course, all the controversy ultimately puts the quality of the actual film under a more intense spotlight. Has it been worth all the contentious debate? Perhaps, but probably not quite.
The 10 Conditions of Love follows the struggle of Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the Uyghur, and her campaign for her people’s human rights. The Uygher come from the part of China known as Xinjiang Province, a territory formerly called East Turkistan and annexed by the Chinese in 1949.
Kadeer was once the richest woman in China and a Uygher cultural ambassador to the National People’s Congress. But when she refused to toe the party line she soon found herself followed, then imprisoned, and finally in exile in the United States.
Since then Kadeer has quickly grown in political stature, picking up powerful allies both in the US and throughout the western world. Her attacks on her former government are precise and fearless, but the Chinese have responded by accusing Kadeer of terrorism and imprisoning members of her family.
It is well and truly a battle of David versus Goliath, and if the MIFF experience proves anything it’s that Kadeer probably has the upper hand in the modern world of instant media, slicing up the Chinese case through a thousand tiny cuts.
Jeff Daniels’s (no, not that Jeff Daniels) documentary is of course another belt of ammunition in Kadeer’s fight for human rights, but it’s actually a fairly by-the-numbers made-for-television effort that probably would have floated by with nary a skerrick of coverage if hadn’t been for the quivering trigger finger of China’s state apparatus.
Daniels’s biggest problem is his failure to build a clear portrait of Kadeer. The audience never really gets to know this indignant, fearless and truly intimidating woman. We don’t even get a blow-by-blow of her self-made ten conditions of love – strange, given it’s the title of the film.
Indeed, there’s a sense that Daniels has attempted to squeeze too much into his sub-60 minute running time: for all the material he tries to cover, you suspect a feature length documentary would have been better – the subject certainly deserves it.
Still, Daniels also aims to inform you about the situation in the former East Turkistan, and this he does despite the almost overwhelming amount of information tackled. The filmmaker’s substantial narration certainly helps to piece together all the different strands of the story, even if it sometimes feels like a made-for-school overview, something your teacher puts on as an introduction to a new term subject.
Hinting at what could and should have been are the film’s poignant moments with Kadeer’s US-based daughter. The imprisonment of her siblings back in China too much to take, she clearly disagrees with her mother’s prioritisation of countrymen and women over family. And yet, once again, this personal aspect of the Kadeer struggle is never expanded upon, an obvious conflict remaining hidden from the audience.
Ultimately, this is a film that you admire more than appreciate. Daniels is still a young and relatively inexperienced filmmaker, and perhaps with a few more runs on the board he would have done things a little differently. 10 Conditions of Love’s existence is important, however, highlighting both the human rights violations of a forgotten people and the draconian nature of a government that is keen to leverage its worldwide economic importance to daub over bad press.
I say: An important film, but not necessarily a great one. But bravo to Umbrella for taking on its release.
See it for: Kadeer’s impassioned, uncompromising speech on Radio Free Asia, detailed in one of the final scenes. It’s enough to make any free speech-suspicious Chinese official shit their pants.
*This image is from the East Turkistan Australian Association
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