genericcomputeruser Like many good science – fiction stories, John & Jane suggest that the willing suspension of disbelief occurs not when we enter the realm of fantasy but rather the moment we awake to reality. What distinguishes John & Jane, however, is that it is not a fiction, but a documentary. Set primarily in India's 24- hour call centers servicing US customers, the movie, shot on 35mm film, is a potent blend of dramatic, stylized cinematography and humanist reportage.The movie begins with a dreamlike tracking sequence through the neon excess of Times Square, New York, only to snap back to homely Mumbai and the shouts of mother haranguing her grown- up son to get out of bed. Director Ashim Ahluwalia focuses on six workers – a "team" in professional jargon – who embody contrasting attitudes and philosophies towards their chosen profession.Each worker is required to assume an American alias, at times jarringly inconsistent with his or her actual personality. Glen is a defiant, pot – smoking malcontent who plans to "get into something that I really like doing, modeling for Versace or Gucci. " Waifish vamp Sydney asserts himself only when directing friends in a local dance group. Ambitious dreamer Osmand admires tarnished kitsch icons Elvis Presley and Engelbert Humperdinck because they are self - made billionaires – as he says this, the camera wickedly tightens on the hideous mustache gracing an exposed Humperdinck cassette cover. Self – possessed angel of mercy Nikki Cooper excels at connecting with clients across impossible distances. Frumpy, Nicholas kills time at sterile shopping arcades so he can spend 20 minutes sharing a McDonald's happy meal with his wife, who works a different shift at another center. Naturally blonde, Naomi professes she is "very Americanized" in mawkish, over – affected American Midwestern accent.Ahluwalia intersperses these video portraits, which follow the characters' daily routines, with static shots of antiseptic call center interiors or aerial views of Mumbai itself bristling with traffic. Giving viewers just enough insight to assess the film's subjects, he refrains from judging their motivations or their line of work.Instead, delicate, ghostly dramas emerge from cross – temporal, trans- cultural exchanges. Sydney recounts how people enquire, "What's the whether like … is it raining? It's showing here. "What about you?" A reclusive, aging man in Texas, responding to solicitations for a new long distance plan, states that he never phones anybody – he'd rather " it just stayed just like it is." Another woman calls to report domestic abuse and seems non-plussed when told she has the wrong number. These fleeting episodes speak to communal isolation, as though the call center's lonely night – watchmen are equally matched by solitary souls confined to suburban wastelands.The team members' responses to their odd situation reveals as much about the universal human condition as it does about any specific local context. Nikki, a born- again Christian who embraces her job, is genuinely at peace. She turns a guest house she inherited from an aunt into an informal commune for friends and colleagues. Osmand, who reads books with titles such as The Magic of Believing, comforts himself with the taped mantra. "You deserve prosperity. Prosperity is your birthright." Naomi turns to the pulsing anonymity of discotheques, confident that blondes attract blondes.Offering an uncommon glimpse of modernizing India, John & Jane is also a stark reflection of America's projected image. Call center staff must take cultural education seminars to drill their American accents and internalize values such as individualism achievement and patriotism. They must understand the luxury of choice that Americans relish. Another scene finds the class watching reels of boy – wonder President John F. Kennedy.John & Jane tiptoes through a taut mix of nationalist industrial agenda, cultural imperialism and colonial vestige. Some workers are enamored of their privileged access to American life. Glen launches a tirade against the unseen executives growing wealthy off his outsourced labor, expressing the accrued frustration others might feel about global capitalism. His weary mother has a more pragmatic understanding of the system, responding, "If you don't like it, leave it and go somewhere else …. If they were doing what are you doing, why would they open a call center here, and why would you get a job? Then tell your Indians to give you a job!"Ultimately, there is no coup de grace, no razor's edge to peel back the skin of one reality to reveal an underlying truth. If anything, Ahluwalia's open-ended film implies that subsistence itself is a struggle fraught with ethical and existential dilemmas. Salvation, whether through self – realization or material comfort, is a lonely road to travel.Review by Andrew Maerkle

simon-basic Foolish, poorly thought-out review this... seems as though you are close to answering your own questions, but somehow you don't exert yourself enough. Paterfam001 asks "Why would you put the sequence featuring the most rebellious, anarchic, foul-mouthed characters first?" ANSWER: for the simple reason that it is the OBVIOUS point of view to have...to HATE this crappy job. But the film doesn't fall into obvious traps - it starts with the guys who hate the job (a POV that, as audiences, we relate to) ... and slowly brings us to understand those who obsessively LOVE that very same job. There is nothing random or unclear about this decision - in fact, it is a strategy central to the way this film operates. The film twists our expectations... it doesn't preach to the preached, but flips things "the wrong way round", unlike a typical documentary that feeds us what we already know. We are rarely used to being attacked as so-called "liberal" viewers and that is precisely what this film does... to know this is to understand what lies at the heart of "John & Jane" and perhaps why it makes spoon-fed audiences uneasy. Films like Von Trier's Dogville and Manderlay could also be seen to operate in this way.I may suggest, Paterfam001, that you stick to the comfort of TV - more specifically, Animal Planet, where whales continue to swim the virgin waters in a simple, happy world.Unfortunately, the world I occupy in is not that simple, linear, idiotic. It is a mysterious, unfair, strange & complex place, and a film that lives up to the challenge of these difficult times is rare indeed.

OlivieFOURNIER This excellent new film from India is showing for the first time in Europe at the Berlin Film Festival. After great reviews at Toronto, I expected a very stupid film like Super Size Me... no, this turned out quite surreal - what a scary, weird and odd world this film shows us. And it is all real - our strange 21st world! The film was voted one of the best undistributed films of the year in the US by both The Village Voice and Indiewire, who have their pulse on new independent cinema."In vast, fluorescent rooms, thousands of ambitious young Indians talk to people in Kentucky, California or Idaho. Bridging continents by telephone, they pitch products and soothe frayed consumer nerves. As they troubleshoot, they dream of America. As they dream, they change. What is it like to transport yourself to a remote land you've never even seen? How does it feel to live so far outside your own body? Welcome to the world of offshore call centers. John & Jane is an astonishing look at the souls of the outsourced. Shot on 35mm and composed with unsettling grace, this documentary finds an entirely original and fitting language to express the eerie dislocation of virtual work. The lives it depicts are real, but the film's approach gives those lives the scope of speculative fiction."The music is really beautiful, too - very ambient and chilling - with electronic musicians from all over contributing to the score, including Germany's Thomas Brinkmann and Japan's Minamo.For anyone who likes films that don't leave you easily - this is a must see!

Christophe Menager I got to grab the last two tickets to a sold-out show of "John & Jane" at the Toronto Film Festival. This film is absolutely brilliant! At first, you aren't sure what the film IS really about...yes, of course, we are told it is a documentary about Indians who work at night answering American 1-800 calls, but beyond that you keep asking yourself "what is the point? where is this heading?" - some people I spoke to just didn't get it at all and felt "let down" by the lack of a conventional structure or storyline…which is EXACTLY what I'm getting to… About 30 minutes into the film, after you have spent time with two call centre workers who (understandably) hate their jobs, you get a character who goes by the telephone alias "Osmond" - he tells you that, in fact, he quite likes the job and is on his way to becoming a billionaire! Osmond is followed by a mysterious girl called "Niki Cooper" who loves the job even more than he does, explaining that the call centre is like her family and that she loves all her callers! This film f**ks with your head… Slowly, a picture of transformation emerges. No, there is no straight story line here, but each character builds on the character that precedes it…until you arrive at the near-cyborg "Naomi" – who looks American but is clearly Indian. Her face is bleached white and hair is synthetic blond. Yes, then the "story" is clear as day – the Indian has "become" a sort of virtual American, physically, mentally and emotionally! Mind you, this is not science fiction or fantasy. It is a "documentary" although the film subtly destroys many documentary conventions. It is actually a piece of experimental film-making in the guise of a pop-doc, which is why viewers looking for a film on outsourcing may be disappointed. "John & Jane" uses outsourcing issue as a way to bring viewers in – but the film is clearly about the idea of "America" as a utopia for so many people in the world.If you are looking for a straight-up BBC film on call centres, STAY AWAY. On the other hand, if you have an open mind and are adventurous about new kinds of film-making, "John & Jane" may be just the thing for you.