To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Wim Wenders' "Land of Plenty", a loose sequel to his underrated "The End of Violence", stars Michelle Williams as Lana, a young woman who has returned to the United States after working as a missionary abroad. After leaving behind the war torn borders of Palestine and Israel, she is shocked to find America in a similar state. "Welcome to the hunger capital of America," a pastor, played by "The Wire's" Wendell Pierce tells her, referring to the slums of downtown Los Angeles.Penniless, but armed with her winning optimism and the fearlessness of youth, Lana begins serving the pastor's Mission, helping the poor and handing out food to the homeless. It's a drop in the ocean, but she does it nonetheless.The film takes place in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and paints a landscape of fear, paranoia, poverty, alienation, misguided aggression, dispossession and hopelessness. While America's war machine – sold to the public as a Christian Crusade - gears up to bulldoze the Middle East, at home people suffer. In this dour world, Lana's character is the only bright light. Contrasted to her angelic, graceful, almost saintly acts, are the actions of her uncle Paul, played unconvincingly by John Diehl. Paul, a symbol of right-wing, warmongering power-figures like Dick Cheney and George Bush, is a Vietnam veteran who spends his days roaming the streets in a surveillance van, illegally spying on others, disregarding murderous Humvee drivers and stalking anyone with a beard. He's an obsessive patriot on a mission from God: to protect the Land of the Free from Ay-rabs and terrorism. At night he has nightmares. Vietnam still scars his psyche.Note that while Paul echoes illegal spy programs like PRISM, MSUCULAR and ECHELON, he also recalls both the "angels" of Wenders' previous films, and the demented national surveillance crews of "End of Violence". It's a neat shift, compassion dovetailing into outright fascism. Regardless, the film draws very simple parallels between Lana and Paul. "Lana has a very innocent, almost childlike faith in God and the power of love," Wenders himself says, "whereas Paul is not really a spiritual person. His religion is America. And America over the last few years has become very similar, in that nationalism has become a kind of religion. It's almost as though Christianity these days can only become defined by certain right-wing politics." So at its core the film is concerned about the perversion of Christian values. Wenders paints a land of plenty where the poor are routinely exploited whilst Christian hallmarks are perverted by administrations to make subjugation, foreign and state-side, all the more palatable. Like Paul, the US sees itself as a country under siege while ignoring all the deeper problems closer to home.Unsurprisingly, the film ends with Lana teaching her uncle to love and let go of his anger, whilst Paul himself must confront the fact that the suspicious "Arabs" he stalks and bullies are just innocent guys going about their business. The film is very very reductive, politically, philosophically and ideologically naive, wrestling superficially with questions greater artists themselves struggle to unravel, but Wenders, himself a devout Christian, seems to know this: "In order to make people identify fully with a character you have to stay in a traditional narrative," he says. "I needed a linear narrative to say what I needed to say in this film." What he's really doing is making a modern version of Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc", where a young woman's tortured, wide eyed, steadfast faith in God is designed to touch the hearts of we the audience. The film's political baggage and Bush bashing are almost besides the point. Like Dreyer did with Maria Falconetti, the film is designed around Michaelle William's radiant but wounded eyes, and the near-monastic cut of her hair. It's about Williams expressive face, specifically the doubts, fears, loneliness and anxieties hidden almost imperceptibly behind her optimistic outer facade. The question is whether her faith in humanity is enough, whether her radiance will fade with age, or whether, like Joan of Arc, she's destined to be crushed.The film was written quickly, and shot in 16 days on a minuscule budget using the Panasonic DVX100, a cheap digital camera. To date it's the best film shot using the DVX100, a camera which was once touted as the saviour of independent film, before being quickly supplanted by HD. The digital look of Wenders' film creates an intimate, warm environment, as well as a sense of immediacy. Wenders has always been adept at bringing the insights of an outsider to bear on the American experience. "Plenty" echoes some of his previous films - "The American Friend", "Vilence", "The Sate of Things" and "Paris Texas" - but carries with it a greater sense of urgency.8.5/10 – Michelle Williams and the always likable Wendell Pierce turn in very good performances. John Diehl is not convincing, perhaps because his character was conceived as a raging caricature. The film hinges, I think, on a familiarity with Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc". Ignore the film's politics; it's all about Lana's face. Worth one viewing. Makes a good companion-piece to "Wendy and Lucy" and "35 Shots of Rum".

Land of Plenty is about an Viet Nam Vet looking for terrorists around every corner. His naive niece from Palestine visits at the behest of her dead mother to get an education about America and Americans. The majority of the film is about the vet imagining all kinds of terrorist plots as he goes from place to place in LA following people and making all kinds of assumptions to support his neurosis brought on by agent pink which was the precursor to agent orange. The niece learns that America is a land of plenty that not everyone gets a piece of as she takes up residence in a mission while looking for her uncle. A drive by shooting of a homeless Pakistani brings them together as she looks for the next of kin and he looks for the terrorist cell. Upon meeting the Pakistani relative, they come to the realization that while America is a great country, the real America is not the stuff of legend, it is the struggle of its people to make their way through their lives and through the world.

The heaviest line for me was "We won", Paul, A veteran from Vietnamise War told his niece Lana about the Vietnamese War. I can not be objective to the Vietnamese War, as it was the events in my adolescent and youth ages. As an Asian youth, I was heavily empathized in the Liberation Front side. But I can understand the mentality of the American ex-soldier saying "We won". It makes sense he wants to think the death of his comrades and his after effects agony of the Agent Pink are meaningful and valuable.When I went to New York in 2003, I saw a man a bit older than I on the 5th avenue driving an electric wheelchair with American flag attached to it. I thought he must be in the Vietnamese War generation. I can understand the mentality of Paul rising up to protect America after the 9.11 incident. Though everybody can tell Paul's belief and behavior are ridiculous, it is the USA whose government is behaving on the same mentality. This is not as innocent as Paul.Lana is a woman as her mother says she has inherited all good aspects from her parents. I felt refreshed and relieved by that Lana and the pastor are described as they are affirmatively. The scene Lana prays looks positive and affirmative. I think this movie portrays the most persuading message among those movies based on the 9.11 incident.

I think with 10/10 this movie is actually rated too high normally i'd give it a 8 or 9/10. But let me tell you why i didn't: At the time when this movie came to the cinemas in Germany, the anti-American atmosphere that broke off in the after-math of the decision of the German chancellor Schroeder, that German troops won't take part in the Iraq War (a good decision as far as I'm concerned), reached a peak. People arguing against that, often stressed the historical role of the American liberators of Germany and stuff. That's all true but it doesn't say much to somebody like me, who's in his twenties. Nevertheless I think there are reasons to have a more complex picture of America. And this movie actually tries to show something of this as well. It also tells an American story and analyzes the American society from the point of somebody (Wim Wenders) who went to America to find something better than in Germany. He found it. Then became realistic about it, and found that there isn't a perfect place on earth, and America definitely isn't. And so this is also a movie of a personal picture of America after 09/11. And at this very special moment it was also a very political movie in Germany, even if I have to confess few people saw it like this...