The six shortlisted writers come from six different countries – Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Tunisia, and Morocco – but their books echo similar themes of repression, religion, and exile.
This month BAMcinématek is spotlighting Terence Davies, whose semiautobiographical "Terence Davies Trilogy" (1983) and "Distant Voices, Still Lives" (1988) resonate with their themes of sexual repression and schoolyard bullying.
Over and over, in works with evocative titles like "Forgive Me for Your Having Betrayed Me" or "Cute, but a Tramp," Mr. Rodrigues would find himself returning to the themes of sexual repression, hypocrisy, rage and deception, along with obsessive jealousy, shame, self-loathing, guilt and physical decay.
However you feel about that style — and a lot of people like it, obviously — it's an uneasy fit for "Happy Town," pulling your attention away from the central story of a mysterious kidnapper dubbed the Magic Man and the themes of rural repression and conformity.
"The theme of Stalin's repressions is harsh and gloomy and far from heroic.
It hardly seems representative of Rattigan, whose trademark theme was repression, the result of his life as a closeted homosexual, though he lived openly for over 20 years after the late 1950's.
Stories of heroic, self-sacrificing resistance seem to work best if there is at least a provisional happy ending, since their common theme is hope in the face of repression and injustice.
But they have a common theme: repression of China's people.
I was perhaps 12 the first time I saw A Room With a View, Merchant Ivory's sumptuous adaptation of EM Forster's novel, which explored themes of passion and repression in the Edwardian era, set against the backdrops of Italy and England.
