Colliding into one--culture, language and relationships.

"When you think you understand something--you understand you know nothing about that culture. Language can be a mirror, a trap you know. Don't believe in the words, just believe in the heart and the eyes--that's what I was guided with."

Alejandro González Iñárritu (on Babel, the end film in a trilogy).

Alejandro González Iñárritu and Gael Garcia Bernal at the closing night gala for Babel.

González Iñárritu seems to speak from his heart--is language used as a veil? What is the real communication when we communicate with each other? González Iñárritu takes this a step further--is he questioning whether culture is also veil--what do cultural differences signify when the desires, the nature of our needs are all the same? After all Babel was filmed on 3 different continents, has 5 different languages and consists of 4 different stories--but manages to have 1 thread in common--all looking at the complex nature of human relationships, specifically the parent child relationship. This theme, he claims in a separate interview with Charlie Rose is the converging point in all his films. Like any good film--his films seem to pose more questions than they answer. González Iñárritu also seems to recognize his limitations as a director--and in this sense to admit weakness is really a strength. Ultimately it seems that González Iñárritu is acknowledging that our stories/social contributions have to be the ones that come from direct emotional experience and are ultimately the only ones we really can tell. Upon first glance, it seems natural to think that González Iñárritu's primary intent in a film like Babel--is to discuss physical borders, but on a deeper level--a discussion about emotional borders emerges, perhaps from direct experience. Physical or emotional--what are the real borders? Perhaps with a knowledge about emotional borders comes an intuitive understanding about physical ones.

Also can culture, in addition to language/physical words be a resistance to real communication?