The Boston University community filled the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall last night for the Boston premiere of six-time Academy Award winner Arthur Cohn’s latest film, “Behind the Sun.”
“Boston doesn’t mean the city of Boston for me; it means Boston University,” Cohn said.
BU granted Cohn an Honorary Degree of Fine Arts in 1988, and he has since premiered nine of his films here. He promised the audience to return for a tenth premiere in the future.
Cohn told the audience before the screening that his premiers at BU are “evenings I cherish as much as the Oscars or premiers at any film festival.” He said that the best films are not ones that elicit an immediate response, but ones that leave the audience perplexed and remain in the viewer’s mind.
“Behind the Sun” had just that effect on many students.
“I’m speechless. There’s sort of nothing to say,” said Robyn Pruzansky, a junior in the College of Communication. “If everyone saw this movie, there would be no more war,” she declared.
“It was the most beautiful film. We were both crying,” said Pruzansky’s friend Rebecca Eisner, a COM senior. “If you’re human, you’ll love this movie,” she said.
“Behind the Sun,” adapted from a novel by Ismail Kadare, is set in the Brazilian Badlands in 1910 and chronicles the struggle of two brothers who are trapped in the violence of a generations-old family feud. Their encounters with a woman from a traveling circus subsequently change their destiny.
The film tackles political and family issues as well as the dilemma of fulfilling one’s own wishes or complying with obligations. In a question and answer period after the screening, one audience member summed up the film’s meaning as “love will save the world.”
BU Chancellor John Silber praised Cohn’s distinctive vision in an introductory speech.
“He is one of those rare people for whom the overused term ‘unique’ is accurate,” Silber said. “There is no other film producer like him. The name of Arthur Cohn is a hallmark registering and guaranteeing the highest quality.”
In a question and answer session after the screening, Cohn detailed the difficult 13-week shoot in a remote part of Brazil, an area he called “the end of the earth.” The cast, composed of both well-known Brazilian stage actors and unknowns, braved 110-degree temperatures during the filming.
Many people were impressed by the film’s cinematography.
“Visually, it was very beautiful,” said Florence Bourgeois, a resident at the BU Medical Campus. One scene in particular of the circus woman swinging on a rope was so striking that is has been recreated in a layout in “Vogue” magazine, Cohn said.
Asked if he had any advice for aspiring filmmakers and producers, Cohn advocated following ones own intuition and ignoring the advice of others.
“If you stop dreaming, you stop living,” Cohn said.
“Behind the Sun’s” nomination for the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film is the latest addition to Swiss-born Cohn’s impressive list of accomplishments. Since his first film in 1961, “The Sky Above, The Mud Below,” Cohn has won six Oscars, more than any other independent producer. He is also the only producer to have earned a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
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