Reviews (April 2010)
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Wine Review
by Helen Savage
I was all set to write an upbeat piece about Sagarda Familia, a group of enterprising farmers in Chile and their Fairtrade, Lautaro wines, sold in this country by Traidcraft, and then the earthquake struck. My story is now rather different …
I interviewed Raul Navarrete the general manager of Sagrada Familia in February when he paid a flying visit to Traidcraft’s Team Valley offices to talk about their joint venture.
As a young lawyer, Raul was so deeply disturbed by the plight of farmers under the Pinochet regime that he went back to university to study agricultural science, and determined to do all he could to help them. He persuaded 16 families to work together. “They were cultivating all sorts of different things: wheat, maize, potatoes and grapes,” said Raul. “It was subsistence agriculture; they could only sell a little of their excess produce and didn’t make much money. We realised that if they pulled together to grow just one product it would be possible to generate a proper income. We analysed the soil and discovered that it would be ideal for viticulture.” Sagrada Familia is in the Lontué Valley in the eastern part of a famous wine region, the Curicó Valley, about 200 km south of Santiago.
The families had to learn fast. None of them had been involved in commercial viticulture before, and it took five years from the foundation of the company before the vines were mature enough to produce grapes that could be sold. They were then lucky to have a visit from someone in the fair-trade movement, who worked for Oxfam Belgium and quickly realised that Fairtrade was the answer to their needs – if they were to make their own wine, they could sell it for export – at a fair price.
Sagrada Familia flourished and another six families joined the project. They export wine to 14 countries and now have more families wanting join. They pay their growers roughly twice the price paid to other commercial grape growers and receive a raft of other social benefits. These include better access to education – so far fourteen Sagrada Familia children have graduated from Chilean universities – and health insurance for every family.
Traidcraft import three Lautaro wines. Sauvignon Blanc 2009 comes from their unoaked entry-level range and then the two oaked reds, one a 2006 Merlot and the other 2006 Carmenère are from the Reserva range, which spend eight to ten months in oak casks. A box of half a dozen Sauvignon Blanc costs £42 and the Merlot Reserva £45. Top value is a mixed half dozen, with two Sauvignon Blanc, two Merlot, one Carmenère and a rosé from another Chilean winery – just £36.90: all sold through Traidcraft’s catalogue and website (www.traidcraftshop.co.uk).
When the earthquake struck, eight members of one family died when their house collapsed. Another four homes were razed to the ground and a very substantial amount of Lautaro’s stock was destroyed. To make matters even worse, the tragedy happened right in the middle of harvest. They were left without water or power; their irrigation systems were very badly damaged as were the two wineries in which they rent space to make their wine. They lost well over 200,000 litres of existing stock (overall Chile lost about 12.5% of the national stocks wine waiting to be sold), worth 183,000 Euros.
Traidcraft have decided to create a special fund to help the people of Sagrada Familia rebuild their lives and business. From each 12 bottles case of wine they sell in the next four months they’ll donate £5.00 to the fund. They have already sent around £5000.00 to help with the most immediate problems.
Meanwhile, Laithwaite’s the national e-mail and mail order wine retailers donated 5% of Chilean wine sales during March and were criticised for their efforts by one wine writer for using the earthquake as a “shameless and appalling marketing opportunity.” I think this was a regrettable reaction. The Chilean winemakers, Fairtrade and not, need us to buy their wines and keep faith with them: it’s perhaps the most effective way of getting cash to the industry and its people. Please support Traidcraft in their efforts – and enjoy Lautaro wines.
Wine of the Month
Lautaro Sauvignon Blanc 2009.
Six bottles for £42 from Traidcraft
A fresh, zippy dry white, with the smell of pink grapefruit and a taste of green apples.
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Film and Faith
by Luke O sbaldeston
Legion
Certificate: 15
Cinema Release UK: 5th of March 2010.
Length: 100 minutes
Director: Scott Stewart.
Stars: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Adrianne Palicki, Tyrese Gibson.
It seems unlikely there will be a more theological film than this for the rest of the year, or perhaps for some years to come. What we have in this film is a sly re-telling of the Christmas story within a B-picture framework.
Starting off with a contemporary 23rd of December, the narrative opens to show the Archangel Michael (Bettany) on earth, with the apparent mission of finding and protecting the unborn child of a single mother to be who is unaware that she is carrying the next incarnation of the messiah. The mother-to-be (Palicki) is a waitress in a desert rest-stop called ‘Paradise Falls’ – this film has a lot of allusions to divine themes. Michael has to make his way from Los Angeles, after being involved with the death of a few cops, to the Mojave Desert in order to see that the child is born safely on the 25th of December.
It appears Michael has been kicked out of heaven for not going along with God’s plan over the child – the film starts with a quote from the Psalter, and the voice-over, by Palicki, states that God has simply had enough of humankind’s “bull****” which is why the pestilence is on its way. Harsh words, but genuinely thought-provoking in the context of a modern zombie-style film, and if the Old Testament is accurate, not the first time God has felt this way either!
Michael is pursued by a host of pestilence ridden human beings, who come to besiege the small rest-stop where he and others are holed-up inside. In order to defend themselves, those unfortunate enough to find themselves there have to dispatch the said pestilence in various ways. In this, the film most resembles John Carpenter’s brilliant 1982 movie “The Thing”. Because it is a Bmovie, the performances vary. Bettany is unconvincing as an angel (although my wife liked him!) and there are some rather tedious soliloquies between the characters before they face their respective moments of truth.
There are places where there is too much talk and not enough action, and differences in composition that perhaps reflect a comparatively inexperienced director who does not appear to be quite sure if this is a Bpicture zombie film (which is where its heart seems to be) or a piece of work trying to make a more profound statement.
What the film does is bring to life biblical material in ways that only cinema can. If you have ever wondered what Michael or Gabriel could look like in the modern era, or how they might behave towards each other with God as their boss, then this film gives you a contemporary impression of that. The film does use the strongest expletive in the English language in one place, and it has a 15 certificate, which is appropriate. There is a lot of violence, but nothing too shocking.
I have read a lot of criticism of this film, but do not agree with much of it, particularly from a theological viewpoint. The screenplay was not written by Pannenberg or Jensen, and it is not offered as a doctrinally correct version of events involving the second coming. It makes use of artistic license, but does not abuse it. What the film does offer is some ghoulish humour, a few exciting scenes, angels fighting and killing things, lots of guns and shooting, and the ability to throw off the shackles of text-bound theology and let some of the characters of the bible appear onscreen in ways you might never have thought of before, stretching their wings, or not, in the process.
It offers, for sure, a modern re-telling of the Christmas story, though it is not a Christmas film. Even if you decide to watch it in order to dislike it, it is worth seeing, and arguably it does engage young people with the Christmas story in a more accessible way than many churches do these days.
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