Propaganda

The advent of expensive movie production and the film industry's dedication to profits over content have merged to produce propaganda films like Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. This glossy production with famed English actors, breathtaking scenery and a Dickensian romance is basically a pro-religion (Islam), anti-environmentalist, anti-government, pro-capitalism and pro-aristocracy propaganda piece, aimed at the hearts and minds of those who believe in tortured romance as the preferable manner of connecting with a life partner. I will not elaborate. The film is widely available for viewing by the uninitiated. 

Hallstrom, director of the film, is Swedish. His family has generational roots in conservative, anti-socialist politics in Sweden. Whether or not this influenced his decision to direct this film is uncertain. However, the film seems consistent with his other works as pro-capitalist and conservative, implying a morality of accepting social systems as they are and learning to move within them. 

Art is often propaganda. It is an effective medium for planting political ideas through words, imagery or song. The success of the lunatic Third Reich was largely due to the evil genius of Goebbels, the media mastermind of Nazi propaganda. 

While I abhor censorship by government, church or rabble, I also abhor the lack of skeptical criticism of films in a world enthralled with religion, corporate greed and materialism. Hallstrom's fishy tale was nominated Best Motion Picture in a Golden Globe Award category. The Golden Globe Awards are bestowed by a group of powerful Hollywood writers and critics.