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Mr Bean’s Ganja Holiday

In the US Janine Hosking’s Ganja Queen documentary was shown following Mr. Bean’s Holiday, an all too ironic moment for one critic on The Hub to overlook.

“Here are two immensely mismatched films, sharing nothing except tourism,” it said. “Compelling and disturbing, Ganja Queen may stop you from ever crossing a border.”

The reviews on the documentary, trimmed down to two hours for the US market, were divided. Some have seen it as a warning sign to tourists travelling to Bali. Others feel it didn’t go far enough in showing the Indonesian perspective.

Here is a selection of their thoughts:

Variety said: Is she really the world best actress and — as the partisan Balinese press dubs her — the “Ganja Queen“? Corby is a likable presence, pretty, simple and bewildered by her life-or-death situation. Her family and friends are a collection of car wrecks whose personal histories are used to malign Corby back in Bali. Her biggest champion, a hustling Australian business man named Ron Bakir, almost single-handedly destroys Corby’s chances for freedom by slandering the entire Balinese court system.

What Ganja Queen illustrates, obliquely, is the magnet that a celebrated court case can become for the attention-seeking eccentrics of the world. Despite the suspense Hosking maintains, Ganja Queen does seem a bit prolonged, although one never really sees where the Corby story is going or where it will end up.

Newsweek said: Queen glosses over the ethical and political briar patch created by international tourist arrests, a topic that has been well-served by scripted films like “Return to Paradise” and “Brokedown Palace.” The film also misses its opportunity to gauge the effect of public opinion on the disposition of a trial.

and

…nor does it provide any insights to how the Balinese people viewed the case. Ganja Queen is reasonably engrossing as a portrait of a family implosion but hints at potential issues that it doesn’t quite reach. As many fascinating topics as Hosking flicks at, it’s unfortunate that she doesn’t go far enough in addressing them.

PopMatters said: Even as it boasts “unprecedented access” to participants in the case, the film remains focused on Corby’s plight, without interviewing the prosecution, prison representatives or judge. (It does offer a brief testimony by a customs officer, I Gusti Nyoman Winata, concerning what he saw on opening the boogie bag, as well as his memory of Corby’s response to seeing the marijuana.)

Lacking cultural or political context, the documentary creates a sense of Corby’s alienation and fearfulness. In this way, the film appears at times a cautionary tale of the sort offered by National Geographic’s tourists-in-trouble series, Locked Up Abroad.

But it’s also a study in ignorance, presumption, and incomprehension, the many ways that Corby’s family, attorneys, and most fervent financial supporter, Ron Bakir, handled and mishandled the case.

Meanwhile messageboards are already filling with US viewers criticising a miscarriage of justice and apparent Australian complacency over the issue.

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