This is hannahsgranpa, this is The Granary

In a word: deep, very deep.

Babel is a multi-threaded tale set in Morocco, Tokyo and USA/Mexico.

A Japanese businessman, at the end of a hunting trip in Morocco, gives the guide his rifle as a gift.  The guide sells it to his neighbour and the neighbour gives it to his two young sons to guard the goats while he is away.  Whilst trying to see how far the rifle will shoot they take a pot-shot at a tourist bus winding along the mountain road and appear to miss.

On board the tourist bus are an American couple played by Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, holidaying in Morocco and trying to patch up their marriage.  The wife is hit in the shoulder by the bullet, severely injuring her.

Meanwhile in Tokyo.  We are introduced to the daughter of the Japanese businessman.  She is a deaf and mute schoolgirl, whose mother committed suicide.  Together with her deaf friends she attempts to live a normal teenage life but is frustrated by the attitudes of teenage boys to people with handicaps.  The multiple frustrations of being deaf, being mute, of her trouble communicating with her father and her inability to fulfill her sexual curiosity are painfully illustrated.

And meanwhile in the US.  The cook/maid/nanny of the American couple wants to go back to Mexico for her son’s wedding but can find no-one to baby sit the two young children and so decides to take them with her.

Back in Morocco.  The tour bus detours to a small mountain village with a doctor and one phone.  The other tourists have little sympathy for the injured wife.  They are frightened to be away from their air-conditioned hotels and want to continue back to civilization.

There is more, much more.  The Japanese schoolgirl attempts to seduce a detective.  After the wedding in Mexico the maid’s nephew panics at the border returning to the US and leaves the maid and the two young children stranded in the desert at night.  The other tourists leave the injured wife and her husband to fend for themselves in the Moroccan village as they hightail it back to civilization.  The Moroccan goatherd and his two sons are hunted down by the police.

As tragedy is seemingly piled upon tragedy we see the whole range of human emotions and frailties exposed.  Although some issues are resolved at the end, I would not say this film has a happy ending.

This is not an easy film to watch.  The innocent suffer more than the not-so-innocent.  I can’t say that I enjoyed the film, it’s not that sort of film, but it made me think so I am glad I watched it.

Babel is available on DVD.

Among its many awards are Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture and an Oscar for the music score.