RIFLE RANGE BOY

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway (2023) Director: Ashima Chibber I remember another case involving a Malaysian couple working in Sweden on a diplomatic passport in 2014. They were charged with child abuse when they smacked their children with a bamboo stick (probably rotan ) for not reciting the Quran. The parents were imprisoned for instituting corporal punishment on their children, something unheard of in that society. Even though a Malay proverb surmises that 'one should live by the law of the land' ( di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung ), this obviously, does not apply to Malaysians in a foreign land, furthermore when it involves propagating religion to the generation next. There was a barrage of condemnation by netizens upon the country that decided to persecute their guests.  A columnist in Malaysia even called Sweden's long remand period "a travesty of universal justice" . The parents, upon return, after completion of their incarceration, received a hero...

The Worst Person in World ( Verdens verste menneske,  Norweigian; 2021) Director: Joachim Trier Maybe it is the pressure to experience all the sensations in one lifetime. Perhaps one lifespan is not long enough to complete Man's laundry list of wants and needs. There is a desire to do the right thing at the first attempt and not lose out to fellow world inhabitants. Are we so hedonistic, only caring for ourselves and not batting an eyelid for others? We have become so self-centred that nobody else matters. It is just me, myself and I. We look at life as a reward. We exist to experience, only to die and disappear into oblivion. There are neither before nor forever after stories after this birth. We get one chance, after which it is GAME OVER.  Like headless chickens, we seem to be running around, collecting experiences.  We cannot wait. We see the line on the other side is moving faster. We jump queue only to find that the last line moves much quicker.  We get frustra...

BBC Podcast: Death in Ice Valley(2018) In November 1970, hikers discovered the remains of a lady in the icy cold mountainous area of Isdalen Valley in Norway. This lady, in her 30s, obviously not equipped for trekking, was found charred faced down in a fire with a bottle of barbiturates in the vicinity. This death was unusual to the peaceful port town of Bergen. It created a lot of excitement. The police had nothing much to work with. To start with, no identity could be ascertained. Nobody came forward with the report of a missing person. The labels on her clothes were cut off. A nationwide alert pinpointed to left luggage in the railway station. It seems she possessed multiple passports, multiple identities and many wigs.  With not much evidence to work with, the police soon declared her case as suicide and were buried in a zinc cast to enable further test if necessary.  Her burial was a low-key attended only by police officers.  46 years later,...