1989 Film Island Of Flowers

Jorge Furtado’s 1989 Film Island of Flowers is short in length, however dense in its message. For twelve and a half minutes the viewer followers the path of a tomato from its harvest to its conclusion. The tomato’s value fluctuates as it scales the socioeconomic ladder. A film as dense as Island of Flowers offers limitless takeaways, however it brought up three issues that were most pressing. Human beings readily distinguish themselves from one another physically, they distinguish themselves in their beliefs, and the most important takeaway from the short film is that money is power.
When the film begins a narrator introduces the farmer as a human being. The narrator goes on to explain that he is a Japanese human being. “The Japanese distinguish themselves from other human beings by the shape of their eyes, their black hair, and their characteristic names”. The farmer was not just a human being, he was a Japanese human being. As the movie progresses forward the same theme is prevalent. Human beings are adamant about separating themselves from one another, even though all human beings encompass the opposable thumb

Human beings who are genetically linked separate themselves on the basis of religion. Such religions hinder some of their basic freedoms. In the film Jews distance themselves from others because they do not eat pork. Furtado also went back in time by showcasing that at one point in time Catholics were not free to pursue profit. Both Jews and Catholics distance themselves from one another through religious practice, neglecting the fact that they both have opposable thumbs and an advanced telencephalon. Human beings neglect to realize that they are all apart of the same race, the human race. The filmmaker wants his viewer to know that humans inherently distance themselves from one another through identifying characteristics and