Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

“What can you do today to help somebody?”

– Adriana Barraza, Oscar nominee for best performance by an actress in a supporting role

As the anticipation builds for this weekend’s 79th Annual Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, Yahoo! Answers has an exclusive question from Oscar nominated actress Adriana Barraza.

She’s nominated for her part in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel which also stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Kôji Yakusho, and Gael García Bernal. Without spoiling the plot for anyone who hasn’t seen it, the film’s narrative investigates how cultural assumptions prevent people truly understanding each other. It’s a poignant question in an era of globalisation, we’d wager. Yet the film also carries a humanist message that points to people’s similarities rather than their differences.

Answers users, such as Wing Commander, have wondered what the title of the film refers to, and Florence, via her mum’s expertise, explains that it’s a biblical reference to the “Tower of Babel.” The chapter reads “that god punished humans by giving them different languages so they could not understand each other… In the film, the issue raised is that they are Americans who can’t (for obvious reasons) speak Arabic and have a hard time getting her to a doctor.”

Waleed Z was impressed by the soundtrack to the film and is desperate to know what track is played in the rave scene . Phoenixdarkness is on hand to help, pointing him to “September/The Joker” by Fatboy Slim. “The whole soundtrack is well worth getting,” he adds.

The Oscars are announced late into Sunday night UK & Ireland time and we wish Adriana the best of luck in her quest to win best performance by an actress in a supporting role. In the meantime, why not answer her question.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team