Fear and Loathing in Small Town, Everywhere

Two Eastern European films that compliment each other even though they are separated by two decades:

Big Animal (2000, Poland, Jerzy Stuhr)
Fear (2020, Bulgaria, Ivaylo Hristov)

In Big Animal, a circus departs a Polish town and forgets a camel behind. As the camel wanders around town, Zygmunt (played by the director Jerzy Stuhr) decides to take the camel home.

Zygmunt and his wife Marysia (Anna Dymna) decide to adopt the camel as they have no kids of their own so they are happy to give the camel a home. There is a warmth to the couple’s behaviour and at first, the couple’s kind act is considered favourable by the locals. 

However, gradually the locals prejudice comes out. They distrust the ‘foreign animal’ and consider it a burden to their town. The town blames everything bad on the camel. They shun the couple and even make Zygmunt stand a court trail.

Big Animal, based on a story by Kazimierz Orlos with screenplay co-written by Krzysztof Kieslowski, is a not so subtle allegory about how a close minded town treats a foreigner. In the end, the camel mysteriously disappears. The couple is heart-broken and they travel to visit a zoo in a bigger city, happy to witness a camel there. The couple’s smile and body language observed at the zoo indicates that their perspective has been changed forever and no matter what they do, they will stay open-hearted.

The disappeared camel makes a surprising entry near the end of Ivaylo Hristov’s Fear, which isn’t a subtle film at all. Bamba (Michael Flemming) is an African refugee who arrives on the Bulgarian border. He wants to go to Germany but ends up getting stuck in a small Bulgarian border town where he encounters Svetla (Svetlana Yancheva). 

At first, Svetla is hostile towards Bamba but she reluctantly helps him and then develops an understanding with him. On the other hand, the town locals are openly racist towards Bamba and don’t hide their hatred. When the locals find out that Svetla is helping Bamba, they attack her as well. 

In the end, Svetla and Bamba decide they don’t want to live in Bulgaria and plan to go to Africa. As the couple wander off into the snowy landscape, the black and white film gets a splash of colour when a camel casually walks across the screen.

The presence of the camel in Fear brilliantly ties the film with Big Animal. Of course, this isn’t the only connection. The hatred of the locals and the words they speak in Fear mirror those spoken in Big Animal with regards to the camel. Such hatred towards foreigners isn’t isolated to small European towns but sadly exists everywhere in the world. The last few years has exposed this hatred across small towns in North America.

Eastern Europe, part III

Part I -- Collapse, Part II -- Immigration and displacement and now Part III starts off with rebuilding....

Democracy and Rebuilding:

Part of a nation's rebuilding involves fresh elections and getting a new leader in power -- democracy is seen as the magic solution to cure all problems. But democracy can be ripe for corruption if a few people are not kept in check.

Orange Revolution (USA, 2006, Director Steve York): Rating 7.5/10

This insightful documentary gives us a behind the scenes look at what really happened with the Ukrainian elections in 2004. When the final results didn't tally with exit polls, something appeared to be wrong. And then when word got out that votes were stolen and tampered with, the people were outraged. But can people change the course of a robbed election? It seems that such was the case in Ukraine after more than a million marched the streets of Kiev to strike a change.

Unfortunately, the current political situation in Ukraine is no better. What looked like the right option in 2004 didn't turn out to be so good. But atleast, history will record that for once the people made a difference. And interestingly, one citizen in the film points towards the American elections and that George Bush was not asked to give back his presidency after records of incorrect votes were found. So in that regard, it is a pleasure to watch Katy Chevigny's 2007 US doc Election Day about the 2004 American Elections. By simply placing the camera around various election booths and by following a few poll monitors, we can decide for ourselves if the American voters are being influenced indirectly. Both documentaries are American but amazingly, it is the Eastern European nation where people's choice prevails despite a complete blockade of free press and media.

Everyday Life:

Do you Remember Dolly Bell? (1981, Serbia, Director Emir Kusturica): Rating 8.5/10

An absorbing coming of age love story set against the backdrop of Sarajevo. A young man falls for his friend's supposed girlfriend and tries to save her when she is forced into prostitution. But the young man's life is further complicated by his father's illness and lingering political ideologies which hover over their household. Another gem from Kusturica!
Camera Buff (1979, Poland, Director Krzysztof Kieslowski): Rating 9.5/1
A brilliant film about the infectious love of film-making! Filip buys a camera to capture the birth of his new baby. However, the 8 mm changes his life more than the baby does. Filip is asked to film an office party because he is the only one with a camera. When his amateur film about the party gets an award at a film festival, he is encouraged to film "everything that moves". But Filip learns that filmmaking can be a very complicated and political process. A beautiful film that looks at the power of film to create and to destroy lives. Vintage cinema.....

And the music turns to chaos:

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Hungary, Directors: Béla Tarr / Agnes Hranitzky): Rating 8/10

Once again, music is a theme that closes the Eastern European cinematic look. A town's beautiful harmonical balance is disturbed when a mysterious circus arrives in town -- the presence of a giant whale and a character called "the prince" causes unrest and anxiety in the town. An evil force takes over and ordinary people riot causing havoc. The army is called in and special "lists" are made to capture certain people.

The gorgeous rich black and white visuals combined with long takes makes for an absorbing foray into a bizarre world crafted by Béla Tarr. Plenty of political under-tones can be found in this film which presents a look at how people can take advantages of certain situations and assume power. But are the ones in power the crazy ones or the people causing the riots? In that sense, the film's ending has shades of the Czech film Lunacy which raised an interesting question about whether the insane people are not the ones in the hospital but the ones in charge of running the asylum.

The beautiful music is over. Discord tunes fill the air waves. And once again, after a long period of peace, chaos returns.....

Eastern Europe, part I

The films, in order of viewing:









The beginning

What came first -- soccer or cinema? The answer from both a historical and personal perspective is soccer. There are recorded instances of soccer played in a professional and organized manner before the 1880's whereas, the first cinematic work is attributed to the Lumière brothers shorts in 1895. On a personal term, I had kicked a ball and played a crude form of soccer before I ever discovered movies. So it is not a surprize then that I first learned of Eastern Europe from soccer. While watching highlights of previous World Cups, I was first introduced to the magical Hungarian team of 1954, the strength of the Polish squad from 1982, the technical brilliance of the Soviets, the high-scoring Yugoslavian team of 1974 (a 9-0 rout over Zaire) & the dazzling skill of Romania's Gheorghe Hagi. The goals & the moves became part of my memory.

Memories:

Over time, our memories fragment. We can only recall certain events from the past. Sometimes, we can't even remember the past but only certain feelings an event caused in us. In the olden times, people told stories to keep the past alive. With the advent of video camera, people used them to record the images from their day to day lives. At the start of Lucian Pintilie's energetic madcap film The Oak we find Nela (played by Maia Morgenstern) doing just that. As her father is lying dead next to her, Nela is looking at old video footage of an apparent happy past with her father in communist Romania. It turns out her memories of her father were not in keeping with the truth. So she undertakes a journey of discovery & truth across the crumbling Romanian landscape while keeping her father's ashes in a coffee jar next to her. She comes across bizarre situations, is almost raped but finds a savior & friend in a kind doctor, Mitica (Razvan Vasilescu). Mitica is trapped in an absurd corrupt world and fights to keep his hospital running despite the ensuing madness around him. Watching his character, one can understand the insanity of the medical system in Cristi Puiu's brilliant film The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. In the end, both Nela and Mitica are outcasts in a crumbling nation -- a country which is finally lifting the veils of communism and is trying to rebuild itself. But before the rebuilding can take place, chaos and corruption run amok.

Collapse & break-up of a nation:

Soccer is a team sport and anyone who has ever played it knows that one person can't win the game alone. Even though at times, the headlines declares one person to be a hero but over a 90 minute game it takes a united effort to get a result. So it is essential that all 11 players work together. If a team is divided into various factions, then it is unlikely the team will succeed. A national soccer team is compromised of players who come from different regional clubs. More often that not, when it comes to the game, players get on with the job & ignore any regional problems. Sure sometimes, they might not pass the ball to a certain player but over a 90 minute period, things appear fine. The regional problems happen off field when the coaches are inclined to pick only some players from a certain region (the problem was common in the former Yugoslavia and Soviet republic where players were only picked from a select few clubs). And if a nation is on the verge of conflict, then a tiny spark can ignite the hatred and a team can easily be divided as nations are.

"A war is not a war until a brother has killed a brother" -- this is a memorable quote from Emir Kusturica's vibrant and pulsating film Underground which shows the break-up and collapse of Yugoslavia. Underground is divided into three stages -- The War (second world war), the Cold War and The War (1990 onwards). The film is seen from the eyes of two friends, Marko and Blacky. They start out fighting for a common cause but eventually go their separate ways -- Marko ends up being a profiteer working the black market for weapons and Blacky becomes the war hero fighting for his nation's independence. Backed by surrealist images and colorful characters (like the smart monkey who can handle a tank), this is a fascinating journey through a nation's mistakes and eventual decline. The film starts and ends with infectious music which lends a light mood to the dark tragedies that unfold. The final scene of the film involves all the main characters on a piece of land that breaks away from its surroundings and becomes an isolated island floating off. That is what literally happened to Yugoslavia, a nation that split apart and resulted in independent countries each with their own soccer teams. Even as the island is floating away, the music keeps on playing and Marko is still dancing. Marko's urge to dance no matter how gloomy his situation is an image that is hard to erase.

Isolation:

Once upon a time, I was fascinated by the powerful Red Star Belgrade team. They had some of the best players in the world and could play wonderful football. But all that changed when they reached the 1991 European Cup final against Marseille, another team which played vibrant football. For whatever reasons, both teams played the most boring final in history, ending 0-0 with Red Star winning on penalties. I thought the team was united. But as Jonathan Wilson points out in Behind the Curtain one member of the team, the brilliant Robert Prosinečki, might have found himself on the outside. While his team-mates were mostly Serbian, Prosinečki was Croatian. When Yugoslavia dissolved as a country, Prosinečki went to play for Croatia while his former team-mates started for Serbia.

Isolation can occur for various reasons -- society can ignore certain members because of religion, race or whatever reason they can come up with. Sometimes, a simple reason such a person's attitude is cause enough for isolation. András, the lead character in Béla Tarr's film The Outsider finds himself at odds with his local Hungarian society. András is a 20 something youngster who loves music, drifts from job to job, does not want to be committed in a relationship. What's wrong with that? Everything!! Especially if the society around you wants people to work for the common national good, then one person's indifference won't be tolerated. In Tarr's Budapest, men meet in cafes after a long day's hard work and discuss politics. If people in a factory are too efficient, they are asked to adhere to the normal working pace so that everyone gets paid the same. That is equivalent to asking a fast soccer player to slow down to keep in sync with his team's slow passes. Such a system can work for some people but for others, it is a problem. The only positive in András's life is the love for his music which keeps him happy.

The 11 year old boy in the Polish film Jestem is made an outsider to society because of circumstances. His mother does not have time for him as she is busy sleeping around and smoking away. As a result, the boy is left to fend for himself and live on the streets. No matter how hard he tries, he can't escape the taunts and insults of other boys. Forced to hide, he finds refuge in an abandoned ship across from a rich family's home. Even though the material is bleak with sad music haunting the screen, Jestem (I Am) is a beautifully shot film which echoes like a modern day Dickens novel set in Poland.

Music:

People need some distraction to balance the stress and nonsense of everyday life. Music serves as such a relaxation for some. András is able to find some harmony in his life by balancing his love for classical music with the new emerging Western music being ushered in Budapest clubs. Whenever the infectious music comes on in Kusturica's film Undergound, the characters forget their worries and let loose, dancing away their pain. In a similar manner, the bleak Romanian country side in the film The Oak is a little easier to navigate after some drinks and gypsy music.

Sins and a human life:

You can give them music, drink, soccer, love, art but still humans are not happy. They commit sins and despite knowing the consequences, can't help but being vain. So what is one to do? One can pass judgment or one can quietly observe their follies. The latter is the case with Kieslowski's 10 films of The Decalogue. All the films are set in the same Polish apartment complex with characters from one film appearing in another. The films range from dark to light, with the first film being one of the most tragic and the 10th film being the lightest. There is something for everyone's cinematic tastes to be found here with stories ranging from parental relationships, husband-wife affairs, coming of age story, incest, capital punishment, war crimes and obsessive hobbies.

There is no one-to-one relationship with one commandment in each film as sometimes multiple commandments are broken in one movie. But what is clear is the underlying issue of ethics and morality. In each film the characters are faced with choices -- they can act either according to their needs or to what society tells them to do. How they try to cope with their desires, urges and feelings while living in a regulated society forms a theme of most of the films.

The 10 films may be set in Poland but they are stripped of any national details and can be set in any nation around the world. As a result, The Decalogue is the most universal work of all the films seen and the one least likely to be studied as part of a nation's state.

Power and Hell

The theme of power and hell is a common element in all four films I saw recently -- each film shows how abuse of power can lead to the victims being trapped in a perpetual hell. All the movies are interesting in a way, but I have to admit I was quite disappointed with the two big name movies set in Africa.

The Last King of Scotland (Director, Kevin MacDonald): Rating 7/10

What a major disappointment! I expected to see a powerful political film which peered deep into the hellish terror of Idi Amin. But all I got to see was a film that scratched the surface while only briefly dipping into the horror underneath. Not having read the original novel the movie was set on, I can’t fully comment on if the problem is with the story itself. However, there is a problem with how the film is constructed. The first 30 minutes are about how a young person can be easily seduced by power. A newly graduated Scottish doctor (Nicholas Garrigan played by James McAvoy) can’t imagine leading a dull boring life in his little town. He spins the globe and picks Uganda as his land of adventure (this was after he rejected Canada as an interesting option). It does not take him long to be seduced by Uganda & Africa. Getting laid and being welcomed as a hero get him off on the right foot. He lands in Uganda just as Idi Amin leads a successful coup and is installed as the new president. It does not take long for Garrigan to be seduced by Amin’s power. After a chance encounter, Idi is impressed by the young Scottish lad. Very soon, the dreamy eyed Garrigan is working for Idi and becomes his trusted advisor. Despite all the warnings of Idi’s terror, Garrigan continues to worship the president. This has to be the weakest part of the film, even though it keeps us interested by giving a few hints for darker things to come.

But when the darkness does descend, it quickly lifts and is followed by more scenes of dullness. By the end, I was both disappointed and angered that I had wasted my time watching this. Sure, Forest Whitaker has brilliantly acted his part out – he dives deep into his role and relishes it; his expressions are fascinating to watch and he precisely delivers each dialogue. But everything else about the movie is just tiring and exhausting to watch. My expectations might have been misplaced but I truly got nothing from watching this movie.

Blood Diamond (Director, Edward Zwick): Rating 7.5/10

“T.I.A. This is Africa.” Yes going by the film locales, this really is Africa. But unfortunately, it is Africa as seen through Hollywood’s lens. And when it comes to Hollywood, it is all about “bling bang”, a little flashy show followed by loud explosions. Ofcourse, I am taking the words of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Danny Archer, out of context, when in the film Danny utters the following words “over there it is bling bling, but here it is bling bang…” The strongest aspect of this film is DiCaprio’s fresh and lively acting. He plays his Rhodesian character with great aplomb.

The movie does have some scenes of genuine political implications as it attempts to shed light on the lucrative diamond business and how the quest for a mere stone impacts the lives of innocent people. The film shows how ‘conflict diamonds’ are used by ruthless dictators to finance their personal wars. The civil wars and genocides result in innocent victims being forced in leaving their homes and living in refugee camps – in fact, one of the best scenes in the film is when the journalist Maddy (Jennifer Connelly) comments on the million displaced people living in a substandard refugee camp and how such a scene would barely get a mention in the Western media. Seriously, does the average North-American really care? How can they be expected to care when they are busy killing the environment with their SUVs, hummers, mini-vans while gulping extra-large, no fame lattes!

Overall, I did like this film but what bothered me is how it is flawed because of Hollywood’s touch of adding un-necessary action sequences and melodrama. Blood Diamond also continues the recent trend of depicting African children soldiers in Western commercial films likeThe Interpreter, The Constant Gardener and Lord of War. In addition, a lot of scenes felt like a rehash of Lord of War and The Constant Gardener. The ending sequence and the beautifully shot street scenes of Sierra Leone are framed & edited similar to how Kenya was depicted in Fernando Meirelles’s film – in both films close-up street scenes of garbage and poverty serve as interludes in between the film’s story line. The potential is there for this movie to be much better than what it is and the film’s long length of 142 minutes does not help either – it is about 30 minutes longer than it should be.

Hell, L’Enfer (Director, Danis Tanovic): Rating 9/10

Based on Krzysztof Kieslowski’s proposed trilogy of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz.

The first 45 minutes seem pretty straight forward – three sisters are stuck in their own personal hell. Each of their relationships is complicated and only serves to torment them further. Sophie (Emmanuelle Béart) discovers her husband is cheating on her. A beautiful scene is shown when she follows him to the hotel to catch him in the act. As she looks up from the lobby of the hotel, she only sees an endless spiral of stairs (Dante’s Inferno?). Each floor is spiral shaped with the walls painted red. In fact, the color scheme of red, blue and white can be found at different points in the film, clearly evoking memories of Kieslowski’s color trilogy. Anne (Marie Gillain), the youngest sister, is having an affair with her professor while Céline (Karin Viard) is the only sibling to look after their mother. Upto the hour mark, the film feels like a typical French movie – relationship problems, crisp dialogues, shots of cafes and French apartments. But then a revelation changes the film’s complexion. A truth about the past gives importance to the opening scene in the movie and also reveals how the three sisters are living in their hell. In fact, the three women are playing different roles in the exact version of hell that had changed their lives when they were little. The same endless play is being continued forever and ever. The film references the Greek story of "Medea", a play about a revenge of a woman. Hell is a portrayal of that play and shows how one woman’s revenge caused others around her to be forever plunged into a never ending hell. Interestingly, when the discussion of the play is shown in the movie, Sophie’s character is shown to be shielding her children in the rain. In the context of the film’s story, this simple gesture might seem to indicate that Sophie is trying to break away from her circle of suffering and is not willing to let her kids go down the path that she was dealt.

I have to say, the last 30 minutes are pure perfection!!! I was not that impressed with the first 45 minutes of this film but the revelation at the hour mark truly changed my outlook on this movie. Overall, this truly is a film that feels worthy of having Kieslowski’s name associated with it. Now, I can’t wait to see what the third film in this installment will contain.

Otomo (1999, Germany Director, Frieder Schlaich): Rating 8/10

It starts with the cold stare. Fassbinder knew that and depicted that in Ali: Fear eats the soul. That was back in 1974 but the stare never went away, despite the passage of time. Stuggart 1989: the stare is still there. Otomo is used to the stare. But he can’t help getting upset by the hassle that follows the stare. After more than 8 years of frustration in a city that refuses to give him his dues, he loses his cool and lashes out at the problem instigator. Ofcourse, his instigator is a white German and Otomo is black. No question on who will be blamed! This was West Germany before the wall came down. Have things changed now? Will the stare disappear one day? In a way, a stare never goes away. The stare can be about skin, race, religion, choice of soccer team, or whatever else. And people who believe they are superior will always try to exert their power. Now false power also comes with meaningless jobs because in a given context, even a peon can feel like God. In a train, a traffic inspector checking for valid tickets feels he has power over every single person on that train. The traffic inspector can decide who is allowed to sit on a train and who is not. Who can question this God? Not his fellow white police men for sure. Police are often known to abuse power as well, no matter how 'democratic' a country is. To quote a few lines from Spiderman: "with great power comes great responsibility." Some people are responsible, others are not. Unfortunately, it is the ones who are irresponsible that destroy others lives and are the ones who give every other responsible person a bad name.

Otomo is a powerful film shot very much like Fassbinder’s cinema. Otomo was a real person, but the only real elements in the film might be facts about Otomo’s life, the incident with the train conductor and the film’s climax. The final credit rolls indicate that the story shown between the train conductor and climax might just be pure imagination. Whatever the truth, that imagined story gives the film an earthy feel; those scenes show that even in hell, there is usually some hope. Out of all the stares, one stare might be tender and warm!