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06/07/2018 12:01 AMThe Original Film Sara’s Notebook (El Cuaderno de Sara) is a Spanish-language film newly streaming on Netflix. Powerful and utterly heart-breaking, Sara’s Notebook highlights the horrors that one woman encounters as she travels deep into dangerous rebel-controlled portions of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Spanish lawyer Laura Alonso (Belen Rueda of The Orphanage and Julia’s Eyes) is back in Africa for the second time in two years in search of her missing sister, Sara (Marian Alvarez of Wounded and Happy 140). Naïve but determined, Laura leaves behind her comfortable life in Madrid to go deep into Goma, a war-torn section of the Congo that is controlled by a dangerous and powerful rebel general who is believed to have Sara in his captivity.
Sara was a volunteer aid relief worker in Africa when she disappeared. No one has heard anything from her in more than two years, but Laura is given hope that she may be able to find Sara after a photo emerges with her in the background of it.
Laura enlists the help of a man named Sergio, whom she pays to help her travel to Goma and retrieve Sara, but soon finds out that he’s looking out for his own best interests, not hers. When that plan fails, she attempts to get help from Sara’s ex-boyfriend, Sven, who sets her up with a local young man, Jamir (Ivan Mendes of Estoy Vivo and Dias de Cine), who reluctantly agrees to help her in exchange for the money that Sven promises him.
While the film is touted as a story about the bond of sisters, it is the relationship between Laura and Jamir that is the most powerful in the film. Jamir is unwilling to share information about himself, but Laura soon deducts that he is a former child soldier who managed to escape, but not before losing his family and being forced to be part of an extreme amount of violence. Laura is shot at multiple times, chased down by rebel soldiers, and bitten by a snake, but each time she encounters danger, Jamir saves her. Theirs is a deep bond born quickly in their intense few days together.
Sara’s Notebook is a nearly two hour long film, but it doesn’t feel it. The action moves quickly as Laura goes deeper into the center of Congo and encounters one harrowing event after another. The images left in the minds of viewers are powerful ones that are hard to shake. The most inspiring part of the film’s storytelling is that even where there is so much violence and despair, there is also beauty and love that lives there.
In addition –
The Netflix Original Film Ali’s Wedding begins streaming on Friday, June 8. Ali’s Wedding is a romantic drama which tells the story of a young Muslim man (Osamah Sami of Lucky Mile and 296 Smith Street) who feels conflicted over whether he should follow through with his duty and enter an arranged marriage or instead follow his heart and be with the young woman he loves.
Set It Up is an original romantic comedy set to begin streaming on Netflix on Friday, June 15. The film stars several well-known actors including Zoey Deutch (Why Him? and Before I Fall), Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels and TV’s Elementary), and Taye Diggs (The Best Man and TV’s Private Practice). In it, two young corporate executive assistants form a plan to play matchmaker for their bosses, thinking that hooking up the two of them might make their own lives easier.