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15 May 2012

The Terminal

While at Gunadala with the pre-novices for the past two days, I screened the movie, The Terminal, for them. I took it with me from here for I thought it was good for them.  However, it fit in well with what I ended the session on the first day of my seminary on Communication and Media... namely, Communication is an of the whole person and not just his or her words or actions.  Your whole being communicates.

The movie is about Victor Navroski, a man from Krakosia who gets stranded at the JFK airport in the US due to some political issues back in his own country.  Unable to go back home nor permitted to enter New York, the situation is compounded by his inability to speak and understand English.  Add to that a 'law-abiding' airport authority who just wants to get rid of this 'unacceptable' Navroski.  Forced to live in the airport, Victor begins to not just live his life but also affect the lives of those working at the airport.  He makes friends with the cleaners, the attenders, the security guards, the shop keepers, and discovers love in the person of an air hostess.  He helps a distraught son get medicine for his father cleverly through the customs, facilitates the love and marriage of two of his friends, finds a job and furnishes quite well his 'living place' at Gate 67...

All along he has a personal mission/errand to run.  Towards the end, when he does get an opportunity to finish what he came to New York for, he is blackmailed to get back to his country, in return for the safety of his new found friends.  Victor does not hesitate a moment. He decides to go back home without finishing what he came to the US for.  Once his friends realise what he did for them, they step in and make his dream come true.

Drawing lessons from the movie, in the context of the seminar, I told the pre-novices, that it is the person of the communicator that matters the most.  The channels, gadgets, education, location... may at the most assist.  But what genuinely counts in the long run, is the person of the communicator.   

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