FilmSkool — a free film school
Babel
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.
2006 · Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu · 143 min · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 7 frames
Tagline
If you want to be understood... listen.
Plot
Babel contains four main storylines with seemingly unconnected characters. The stories are not told in linear or chronological order. As the movie unfolds, the audience learns how the plots are intertwined.
In a desert in Morocco, Abdullah, a goatherder, buys a gun from his neighbor to shoot the jackals that have been preying on his goats. Abdullah gives the rifle to his two young sons, Yussef and Ahmed, and sends them out to tend to the herd. Doubtful of the rifle's purported range, the two decide to test it out, aiming at rocks and highway traffic. Yussef manages to hit a bus, critically wounding an American woman who is traveling with her husband on vacation. The two boys flee the scene and hide the rifle in the hills.
Glimpses of TV news programs reveal that the US government considers the shooting a terrorist act and is pressuring the Moroccan government to apprehend the culprits. Abdullah, who has heard about the shooting, asks the boys where the rifle is and beats the truth out of them. Finally, the three try to flee but are spotted. The police corner the father and boys on the rocky slope of a hill and open fire. After Ahmed is hit in the leg, Yussef returns fire, striking one police officer in the shoulder. The police continue shooting, hitting Ahmed in the back, severely injuring him. Yussef then surrenders, admitting responsibility for shooting the American and asking for medical assistance; the police are shocked to realize they were shooting at children.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Guillermo Arriaga
- Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
- Edited by: Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
- Music: Gustavo Santaolalla
- Production design: Brigitte Broch
- Produced by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Steve Golin, Jon Kilik
Cast
- Brad Pitt as Richard Jones
- Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko
- Adriana Barraza as Amelia
- Cate Blanchett as Susan Jones
- Satoshi Nikaido as Kenji Mamiya
- Said Tarchani as Ahmed
- Boubker Ait El Caid as Yussef
- Gael García Bernal as Santiago
- Nathan Gamble as Mike Jones
- Elle Fanning as Debbie Jones
Production
- Country: France, Mexico, United States of America
- Language: Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian
- Studios: Central Films, Zeta Film, Anonymous Content
- Budget: $25,000,000
- Box office: $135,330,835
- Themes: daughter, first time, loss of loved one, gun, deaf-mute, san diego, california, ecstasy, nanny, illegal immigration, morocco
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.