ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Official Oscar entry

Wednesday at AFIFest 2020

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My cat has enjoyed AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi a great deal this year. She rarely has a chance to spend a whole afternoon on my lap when I actually have to go to movies. I doubt she realizes the qualities of movies she’s sleeping through. She’s missing out on some very good stuff.

The documentary Collective, by German-Romanian filmmaker Alexander Nanau, arrived at AFIFest with a load of festival awards. It takes place in the aftermath of a tragic 2015 nightclub fire that claimed 27 lives. The corruption that that fire exposed led to the fall of the government, and a new temporary government of technocrats. Yet, another 37 victims of the fire died over the next four months, mostly from infections. All the while the Minister of Health claimed the hospitals were among the best in Europe. When journalists discovered that the disinfectants being sold to hospitals were blatantly diluted, a new scandal erupted. This film takes us inside the controversy, the investigation, and the attempts at the new Minister of Health to create a better medical system.

The key quote I found in the film: “The way a state functions can crush people some of the time.” This is one of many films I’ve seen this year that portray the need of an independent and trustworthy press for democracy to function. Collective not only speaks to that need, but is clear that the power of government can be overwhelming. This film is Romania official submission for Best International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

In Ekwa Msangi’s Farewell Amor, an Angolan immigrant in New York is reunited with his family after seventeen years apart. Walter came to America following the Angolan Civil War, his wife Esther and daughter Sylvia went to Tanzania. It has taken all this time for Walter to get permission for them to join him. Meanwhile, their lives have gone in different directions. Esther has become quite religious. Walter has made a life for himself—with another woman. Sylvia, in high school, has her own dreams. There are chapters in the film that give us the perspective of each of these characters. It is interesting how dancing keeps coming into play within the film. The characters find identity, both separately and as family, in dancing. At times that dancing may be a source of conflict, but it can also be the beginning of healing.

You may wonder if there are ever any comedies at festivals. Yes, in fact I took one in yesterday with My Donkey, My Lover & I by Caroline Vignal. Antoinette, French fifth grade teacher, is having an affair with Vladimir, the father of one of her students. When he cancels a romantic getaway to take a hiking trip with his wife and daughter, Antoinette decides she will do the same hiking adventure and surprise him. Totally unfamiliar with hiking, she hires a donkey for the journey. Naturally, it becomes a comedy of errors as Antoinette must deal not only with Patrick the donkey, but with her total lack of hiking ability. When she does manage to run into Vladimir and his family, the awkwardness and revelations become a bit more than she expected. The trip turns out to be a way for Antoinette to come to better understand herself and opens up new possibilities for her.

Our Mothers – Fleshing Out the Truth

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The aftermath of the Guatemalan Civil War and genocide is the background for Our Mothers (Nuestras Madres) from Belgian-Guatemalan writer/director Cesar Diaz. The film received attention at various festivals, including winning the Camera d’Or at Cannes Critics’ Week. It was Belgium’s official submission for Best International Feature Oscar consideration.

Ernesto (Armando Espitia) is a young man who works for an agency that identifies the remains taken from mass graves. They assemble the skeletal remains, test DNA, and return the bones to families for proper burials. He has a personal stake in this process: his father was among those who were disappeared during the Civil War. When an indigenous woman from a rural areas asks him to exhume the bodies near her village, she has a picture he thinks might include his father in the group of guerillas. His mother Cristina (Emma Dib) tries to discourage him, but he wants to know the truth. When he arrives at the village, a number of women show up wanting to bear witness to what happened. We don’t hear their testimonies, but we see a series of visual portraits of the women.

When he returns home, and continues his work, he receives word that his father’s remains have been unearthed. It is at this point that the question of truth begins to come to the fore. Cristina is getting ready to testify at a trial of some of those responsible for the genocide. The truth she shares is not the story that Ernesto has heard all his life. There are things she has tried to shield her son from. But now it all becomes known.

The fact that much of this film takes place in the presence of bones provides an excellent metaphor. The opening shot is of bones being placed together to make a complete skeleton. The bones are not the whole person. They are not themselves the story or the truth. They only remind us of what once was. The real story must be built around this framework, and what is missing is as important as what we see. The bones are not the truth, but as we hear the stories told about these people, the truth takes on flesh.

In press notes, Diaz says he had started off to make a documentary about survivors of the genocide, but when he heard the accounts of rural villagers, he wanted a different way to tell those stories. He says that in the Guatemalan Indian tradition, things must be spoken to bring them into existence. The film is not actually about the stories (although we hear a few of them); it is more about the importance of speaking and hearing the stories.

The trial that is going on throughout the film has grabbed the attention of the society. It is on TVs and radios everywhere Ernesto goes. He is captivated by the stories. But oddly, when his mother is in the car with him, she keeps wanting to turn it off. We understand later that she does not need to hear the stories; she lived them. But is does become important for Ernesto to hear those stories—even the ones that Cristina tries to protect him from. The truth is not just what happened in the past. The truth only becomes real when it is spoken and heard.

Our Mothers is available through Virtual Cinema.

The Whistlers: Cops and Robbers and Robber Cops

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It is amazing how complicated heist movies can be. That’s their nature. Pulling a gun and asking for money doesn’t really make for a movie plot. But if you can steal something through various steps, and then twist things up with double and triple crosses, you have a story that even when we aren’t sure what’s happening, we want to see how it all works. The Romanian film The Whistlers from writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu is such a film. The Whistlers was Romania’s submission for Oscar consideration last year.

We first meet Cristi on his way to the Canary Islands. Here he reconnects with Gilda, an archetypical femme fatale. What we will discover little by little, is that Cristi is a corrupt police officer. He has been recruited by a gang of criminals to help a prisoner to escape. For this plan to work he must learn a whistling language used by criminals. (Yes, there really is such a language.)

Also, little by little we learn the background is that the gang has been laundering money through a mattress factory in Romania. They want their money. But when police begin to close in on the factory, the gang wants to get their money back. The leader of the gang is ruthless and deadly. But when the chance comes for some of the characters to get rid of the gang and keep the money, things get increasingly complex. And the complexity is mirrored in the fact that the film uses three languages (Romanian, Spanish, and English) intermittently. (Four languages if you include the whistling.)

This is not a film with good guys and bad guys. There are some people we are rooting for (especially Cristi and Gilda), but everyone is corrupted or corrupting. There are now Robin Hood type of motives involved here. The money isn’t going to be put to some noble use. The immorality of this group would lend support to the Calvinist belief in the total depravity of humanity.

We are, though, drawn to Cristi. Maybe because he doesn’t have a strong personality or will. He is seemingly carried along by the plot, rather that the mastermind. He takes advantages of situations, but isn’t really the instigator. The only thing he really has going for him is his love for Gilda. But is she really worth his devotion? Would she reciprocate? Or is it enough that Cristi acts to win her?

The film can be a bit hard to follow at the start. It helps to have brief overview while you get your bearings in the film that goes back and forth in time. But it is an enjoyable ride that ends up with a scene of great beauty.

The Whistlers is available for rent via Virtual Cinema. Check your local art house website or https://www.magnoliapictures.com/virtualcinema.

1on1 with Jan Komasa (CORPUS CHRISTI)

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I recently had the opportunity to speak by phone with Jan Komasa, director of the Polish film Corpus Christi, which is on the shortlist of films being considered for an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Feature. The film is the story of a young man (Daniel) who impersonates a priest in a small town parish. The film is due to be released in the U.S. in the spring of 2020.

First off, congratulations on making the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Language Feature.

Thank you. Thank you. It came as a huge surprise, out of 90-some films. Yeah, a lot of people were working on this, at least to get it out to the members. Getting through a huge number of films, it’s a huge obstacle without a very big budget, because we don’t have a huge budget for promotion. We’re very happy.

 I see the film’s done well at film festivals. How has it been received in Poland?

So far, so good. About 1.4 million people saw it in cinemas, so the turnout is great. As far as I know the sales agent has sold it to around 40 countries, I believe. So it’s going great, for people with money.

That wasn’t my purpose to be honest, in the first place. I just wanted to make it sincere. To be honest, I’ve made some blockbusters already here in Poland, so I sort of know how it is. I’m not interested in big success. I’m interested in success, but not financial success. All of this, it might be overwhelming, but I don’t feel like I care that much about it.

This is a film that’s based on real event. Could you say a bit about how you heard of the story and made a film about it?

My scriptwriter, Mateusz Pacewicz, he was the one who heard about this. When he was eighteen years old he became obsessed with people pretending to be priests or people of faith in Poland—people of faith as officials of church. As it turned out there are several cases each year of imposters—fake priests. Not a lot people know about it because the Church is not happy with it either—being so easy to manipulate people with just wearing priests’ robes and collar. There’s such respect for priest, for Church, here in Poland, that people don’t ask you for credentials. They don’t check you out. They just believe that you’re not going to fool them or cheat them. Especially in rural areas.

So I didn’t know about it. We’ve heard some crazy stories about imposters every now and then. There was one case in 2011 where a guy was a fake priest for four months [including] May and June, which is during [the feast of] Corpus Christi, and he helped organize Corpus Christi in one of the small villages in rural Poland. That was the basis of Mateusz’s article in the newspaper. First it was a fiction short story, then he wrote it into an article. Thanks to the article he was approached by one of the top producers here in Poland who wanted to acquire rights for the story. And Mateusz decided to write it himself, with the help of the producer.

They found me and sent me the script. I was fascinated by it, but not too much. I sent them my commentary on the film and the process. They fell silent for two or three months.  After three months they sent me the revised version script, and it turned out they implemented ninety percent of my comments. It fit well with the script. I felt very, very lucky and I should appreciate it because while reading it I saw my film, but I also met this amazing guy, Mateusz, who I’ve already made another feature film with, and it’s finished.

What struck me with the film—with the project—at the beginning was, I’m Christian and my biggest fear—I have a huge family. I have three siblings. My parents, and my wife has four siblings. Everyone married. Almost everyone has kids. So when we sit at the table there’s thirty of us. My biggest fear is that—the family was always like a bubble. I felt secure in it. The family is like number one subtheme in my films. I have another project about family. So, I love family sagas like The Godfather. My biggest fear came when—I feel that around 2014-15 a huge national socio-political change came to Poland, not only to Poland, I could feel it going on everywhere, leaning towards ultra-conservatism. There’s been many reasons for it. But what happened with nations, with continents, is there turns out there’s a huge gap between tribes. There are tribes. That was the first thing to notice: there are tribes. The other thing is the gaps between tribes are huge. A gap of that size simply doesn’t allow people to come together and talk freely with each other.

Unfortunately it affected my family as well. The divide was not only cities and countries and streets, but families, and my family was one of them. My biggest fear was that one day it would all blow up, and people who were very close you feel are strangers. When I read the script for Corpus Christi I felt like it totally nails it—this fear of one community, which craves some kind of union, but it just fails. The community is broken, fractured. People know that and feel the hurt, but it’s just too much. It’s just too difficult for them to come together, to get over it.

The idea of a stranger coming to town and trying to do good, spread love, sort of learn the language of conversation using basic Christian values and approach—so Christian that sometimes it might be unheard of, even politically in the official Christian Church—at least in some places in Poland—that it might be revolutionary. Which is something, I think, is very basic today. Like, let’s just talk and come together. We’re not going to kill each other over differences. We’re all one species, so let’s just talk and do something about it. We don’t have to agree about everything. And the idea of having a healer, even when he’s fake, for me at least, was revolutionary and thrilling and refreshing. It just refers to a lot of my fear—and dreams at the same time.

One of the things about Daniel is that he’s broken too. When he comes to this community, he understands brokenness.

That’s right. Actually what’s tricky about this script, it might be very effective when it comes to creating paradox, which I really like in cinema. It’s great food for thought, if it’s written well. And here I think it was by Mateus remarkably well. We have two films in one. One film is about an imposter—a guy who uses his fake identity. I can easily imagine a film only about that. But there’s another film here about fractured community. I can also easily imagine a film about somebody, let’s say a real priest, but young, replacing the old priest at the parish and he comes and discovers there’s a mystery and a challenge, and he heals people. But here the two films are setting side by side together in one project and it gives a huge opportunity to play with paradoxes.

So for example, as you said, you have a broken person, who thanks to his brokenness, he relates to the broken community. We have a fake priest—somebody who cheats and lies. But at the same time he is able to squeeze out the truth from people. We have a patient from a juvenile detention center, and he runs a therapy on people who are not patients, but apparently behave like patients. We have a community which feels rejected by the overall society, and they don’t hesitate to reject other people too. Daniel is a broken character to start with, and he knows the bitter feeling of rejection himself. So when he finds that rejected people reject others, he finds the black sheep in the community, and he feels for her. He knows how it is to be out of the community—to be condemned by all. His mission becomes to get them together. I found it thrilling when I read it, and very rare in a feature film, that so many layers are conversing with perception and soul at the same time.

I saw in an interview that you think of this as a Protestant film. How so?

Protestant meaning probably a cultural thing. Poland is predominantly Catholic. Protestant in the way, at least stereotypically, in the way priests are with their community. In my understanding, there’s a certain wall between the priest and the community. At least here in Poland. The Protestant approach seems closer to people. Not every Protestant approach, obviously, but the barriers between someone who’s a priest, someone who’s a pastor and his community seem less severe, with less restrictions. I’m not saying there’s none because it’s impossible. It’s a function. It’s a social function, a church function. So it always creates some obstacles, obviously. But there’s a feeling that priests are not like regular people.

I was growing up with this, surrounded by this strong Catholicism. During Communism, Poland was very religious, because it was religion, but for fifty years it was religion that kept us going as a nation. Churches were the only places where we could gather freely—at least that’s what we thought. We felt we were independent in church. So a lot of intellectuals, people who are artists, people who today we would say they’re more affiliated with leftists—they found their home in church. That was the only place they could feel free—more free. After fifty years, when freedom was regained the Church sort of shelter wasn’t needed anymore. There’s a lot of people who after thirty years of being free as a country, we feel like the Church detached from the society to a huge extent. I feel the detachment is so great now, and I’m telling you, this as a Catholic, the Church became politically affiliated, especially with the right wing. They let nationalists, with the flag and the hate rhetoric, through its gates.

Suddenly, for people like me it became too hard to find our place in church. Not to say we were super active before, but still we felt—I felt too—that maybe, I don’t know, we became like two different species, tribes, too much. I just couldn’t find a relationship with church—my relationship with church—that significant. So I’m not the only one. But it doesn’t mean I’m not spiritual. I’m talking about me because it’s easier. I’m not generalizing. But I feel like I’m an example of many, many people who feel the same way. I feel like the community is still spiritual, as it was. Nothing changed in that matter. People need to talk about fundamental values and the sense of it all, not only philosophically and intellectually.

Since a lot of us felt we were sort of alone with this, but we don’t find any partner in Church anymore—the Catholic Church—we started to look for alternatives. That was probably Protestant church, which is not significant in Poland, became an option for a lot of people. A lot of now talk about Protestant church before talking about leaving church at all. I think that probably why Protestant church feels like the approach people are missing.

But that’s probably why this film, at least in Poland, was called a Protestant approach film. Like what is a guy who just wants to be closer with people without building too many walls around him because of the office he wields, just breaks barriers and wants to be very direct with people and more down to earth, almost like a pastor. Of course, it’s another generalization. To be honest, as I’ve said, we’re predominantly Catholic, so not much Protestant church in Poland, compared with knowledge as American about Protestant church. It’s complicated. I’m not an expert, but I feel like the Protestant approach is a bit more direct.

One of the lines that I find important in the film, and for me the theme of the film, is when Father Tomasz tells Daniel, “Each of us is a priest of Christ”. I thing that is often times seen as a very Protestant concept. We are all priests, not just the one who is designated as priest.

Okay. I think you’re right. I think that’s the theme. We don’t have to be designated to share Christ’s word, right?

Thursday at AFIFest 2019

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As AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi draws to a close, it is time to thank the festival and it’s press office for allowing me to attend and report on the festival. I also want to thank the countless volunteers who helped to make the festival run smoothly and make sure I got in the right line when it was time to do so.

I am one of many people who has enjoyed Oliver Sacks’s books about various neurological maladies. Oliver Sachs: His Own Life is a documentary by Ric Burns. Burns was given very important access to Sacks in his final months before dying in 2015. The film tells of his life, his struggles (which include drugs and coming to grips with being gay). Above all, though, it paints him as a man who was amazingly empathetic and curious about people—especially patients with various neurological problems. He says that he always wanted to know what it was like to be another sentient being—to be another human being. That empathy is what made his books such a joy to read. When I read them, it was not just seeing some strange person or their illness; it was a chance to learn what it was like to be them as they lived with their malady—or in some cases, their gift.

In Corpus Christi from director Jan Komasa, Daniel is paroled out of the juvenile penal system and sent to work at a sawmill in a distant town. When he arrives, instead of reporting to work, he goes to the church to pray. When asked, he says he is a priest. He has a clergy collar and is taken to meet the local vicar. When the vicar becomes sick the next day, he asks Daniel to fill in for him a few days. Daniel has served as an altar boy, and would like to become a priest, but his conviction prevents him from going to seminary. Soon he’s hearing confession, presiding at mass, giving last rites and all the other things priests may have to do. In time, of course, his past will catch up with him. What I found interesting about the film is that even while knowing what he was doing was wrong, Daniel strove to do what was right. He applies the kind of tactics the chaplain in his facility had used to help the villagers work through grief and anger stemming from a traffic accident that killed several young people. At times we also see the awe that Daniel feels as he realizes what he is being called to do. While some may think it is anti-church in saying there is nothing special about the priesthood, it does serve as a reminder of the idea of the priesthood of all believers. Corpus Christi is Poland’s official Oscar submission for International Feature. It will open in the US in the spring of 2020.

Tuesday at AFIFest 2019

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It’s nice to be able to compare notes with others at AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi. You get to hear what other people have seen and were impressed by, or just compare notes and confirm that what you saw was pretty bad. Sometimes such discussions can make you rethink your schedule.

I opened the day with Searching Eva, a documentary film by Pia Hellenthal about a young woman (at the time, see note below) in Berlin. She is a sex worker, blogger, and model. In the film she self-identifies as bisexual. I went in thinking this could be really bad. But she has an interesting view on the world and lives her life very freely and openly on her own terms. The film includes some of her blog posts and comments made by others on her blog—some supportive, some dismissive, some questioning. Whether her lifestyle and philosophy appeal to you or appall you, Searching Eva is an interesting look at a unique person. [Note: Prior to the screening, the festival program mentioned that the subject of the film has since transitioned to male. For the purpose of this review, I use female pronouns to fit the subject at the time of filming.]

An interesting coincidence with the next two films: both are stories about women, motherhood, and struggle. In Adam, from director Maryan Touzani, Samia, a young heavily pregnant woman, goes door to door looking for work and a place to stay. Abla, a single mother and baker, reluctantly takes pity on her letting her in for the night, then a few more. Abla’s daughter Warda is happy to have someone else in the house. Abla as tired, cold, and perhaps a bit bitter. As the days progress, the two women find strength in each other for their struggles. More, they find strength to hope for something better than life has given them so far. Adam is Morocco’s official Oscar Internationals Feature submission.

Maura Delpero’s Maternal is set in a home for unwed mothers run by a group of nuns. Lu, one of the mothers, is very rebellious. She is frequently in trouble with the nuns. One day she leaves, abandoning her young daughter Nina, with Lu’s roommate Fati, who has a son and a daughter on the way. Nina is very taken with a newly arrived nun, Sister Paola, who is yet to take her perpetual vows. Nina asks to sleep with Sr. Paola, and soon a very close bond begins to form. Does this cause Paola to have second thoughts about her vows? When Lu returns, what will that mean for Nina? Both Lu and Paola love Nina, but in very different ways. One is more spiritual, the other much more primal. Probably neither is completely what will give Nina all she needs in life.

Friday at AFIFest 2019

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Welcome to Hollywood and AFI Fest Presented by Audi. I love coming to this festival and discovering some of the best films in the world, some of the great history of the industry, and the work of filmmakers who are just now making a name for themselves.

Part of the New Auteurs section featuring emerging filmmakers is The Planters. Written by, directed by, and starring Alexandra Koltcheff and Hannah Leder, this is the kind of quirky dark comedy that seem to thrive in festivals. Martha (Kotcheff) is a bit of a failure as a telemarketer, but she has a “business” of shoplifting small things and burying them in the desert, where people dig them up and leave money. One day in the desert she is run down by Sadie (Leder), recently released from a mental hospital, wearing a wedding dress and racing helmet. The two (more actually, with Sadie’s other personalities) strike up a tentative friendship as the work to keep Martha from losing her job. But when someone starts stealing Martha’s buried goodies, problems arise. Of interest is that Sadie has hallucinations when she looks into one of the tins Martha buries stuff in. She sees twisted Bible stories. It is all very odd, but also something you can’t quite turn away from.

Antigone, from director Sophie Deraspe, is inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy (and Brecht’s updating version). Antigone (Nahéma Ricci) is a straight-A student from an immigrant family. She lives with her grandmother, sister, and two brothers in Montreal. (Her parents were killed just before the family immigrated when she was three.) When one brother is killed by police, and her other brother is arrested and threatened with deportation, Antigone plans a way for him to escape while she takes his place. When she is arrested faces the legal consequences, she becomes a bit of a cause célèbre among Montreal youth. She is acting out of love for family that transcends all else in her life. This was a very strong film that deals with love, family, and dignity, as well as the underlying struggle of past verses the future. In court she blurts out “My heart tells me” to save her brother. It creates a question in viewers minds as to what our hearts tell us to do and what we would sacrifice for those we love. Antigone is the official Canadian submission for International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

In Corleliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers, Christi (Vlad Ivanov), a corrupt police officer, is involved a money laundering scheme. The beautiful Gilda (Catrinel Marlon) brings him to the Canary Islands to learn a secret whistling language used by criminals. It is a comical heist thriller, in which everyone seems to be being watched by someone, and everyone seems to be trying to two-time someone. Very entertaining. The Whistlers is Romania’s official submission for International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

Birds of Passage – Lost Values Lead to Ruin

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“If there’s family, there’s respect.
If there’s respect, there’s honor.
If there’s honor, there’s word.
If there’s word, there’s peace.”

Among the Wagúu people of northern Columbia, family is the basis for everything. If that is not cared for, step by step, all values will erode until society falls apart. In Birds of Passage, Columbia’s official entry for Oscar consideration (which made the shortlist prior to nominations), we watch as a family disintegrates over a period of years from the 1960s through 1980s because the values were not adhered to.

The story centers on Rapayet (José Acosta), a young man who seeks to marry Zaida (Natalia Reyes). Zaida’s mother Ursula (Carmiña Martinez) is unsure of Rapayet because he does business with the alijunas (outsiders, anyone not Wagúu). He is asked to provide a sizable dowry if he is to marry Zaida. While he is off working to raise the dowry, he finds some young American Peace Corps workers wanting some marijuana. When he goes to a cousin and convinces him that pot (which grows wild on his land) would be a more lucrative crop than coffee, a drug enterprise is born. Soon Raypayet and his alijuna partner Moisés have developed contacts and are involved in smuggling to the US. The scope of the business grows through the years, becoming more violent. Moisés does not follow the Wagúu values and his lack of respect for them starts the process that will eventually lead to bloodshed and ruin.

The story is told in a series of Cantos (songs) which mark off time periods. Along the way the guns, vehicles, houses of those involved become more upscale. And we see that the younger generation who have grown up with these new riches are separated from the traditions of their people. Ursula, who is the clan matriarch and keeper of the tradition, tries to pass on the values and mythology, but they younger people just aren’t interested.

This is a film with spiritual and mythological aspects. Within the Wagúu culture dreams, ghosts, and birds often bring messages and warnings. Ursula seeks to interpret those messages, but is often viewed as outmoded—an archaic remnant of old ways that others think unimportant. This serves as a rejection of the spiritual life of the community—abandoning the way of their ancestors for the riches of the world.

How do we look at the relationship of societal values and the health or potential ruin of our own society? I often hear people decrying the changes that have taken place as being the end of civilization as we know it because we have departed from our values. But I also note that such a conclusion may come from any number of directions—liberal, conservative, religious, secular. There are those who believe every ill in society comes from removing prayer from public schools. There are those who would blame the state of the world on the Military Industrial Complex. For some it might be the mixing of races, allowing same sex marriage, or corporate greed. Some would say we need a wall on our southern border and travel bans from Muslim countries to protect our values from outsiders (alijunas). Others believe those things are the destruction of our values dealing with welcoming those who seek a good life and freedom.

We constantly struggle not only to live by our values, but also to understand just what those values are and what they are founded upon. And I think we should also come to understand that values may evolve with the times. I think this film brings an important message that we need to pay attention to our values as we make our way in the world. We may not always have the same values, but being true to the values we cherish will be an important part of finding peace and joy.

Photos courtesy of The Orchard

Cold War – Smoldering Sorrow

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“Love’s love and that’s that.”

A pair of star-crossed lovers are the focus of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Poland’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film consideration. Set in the years following the Second World War, it moves back and forth between the Communist and Democratic worlds, but it is not the geopolitical situation that is reflected in the title, but the relationship between two people who can never be happy apart—or together.

Beginning in 1949, Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and Irena (Agata Kulesza) are traveling the Polish countryside looking for those who know folk songs and dances. They are forming a touring ensemble that would preserve and celebrate this music of the people. One of those who auditions is Zula (Joanna Kulig), a young woman with a dark past who will do whatever it takes to survive in a hard world. Wiktor is immediately drawn to Zula, and before long they are lovers.

But Wiktor and Zula are from two very different worlds. As the government starts politicizing the folk group and its performances, Wiktor begins to think he might be better off in the West. On a trip to Germany, Wiktor plans to defect. He asks Zula to join him, but when the time comes, she doesn’t show up. As the years go by, the two reunite from time to time on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Each time, their passion for each other consumes them, but that passion is not enough. Neither will feel at home in the other’s world. Each reunion brings a new breakup.

Wiktor and Zula are mismatched because of background and the inability to adapt to each other’s world. Just as Wiktor yearned for freedom (both musically and politically), Zula was at home in the Communist state that has given her fame and comfort. When the two are together in Paris, it is clear that Zula will never fit in with the more intellectual world that Wiktor enjoys. They are doomed, not by enmity of those around them as with the original star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, but by their internal hostility to the other’s choices in life. As in the political Cold War, they are constantly seeking a tentative coexistence, but then escalating tensions to an unbearable level.

The black and white, Academy ration cinematography adds a since of nostalgia to the film, as well as a sense of smoldering sexuality. This is a relationship based in passion and the film uses its visual artistry to enhance that. Also of import is the music of the film. The contrast of the politicized Polish folk music and the freedom of Wiktor’s jazz in the West points to the different worlds the two lovers inhabit.

Photos courtesy of Amazon Studios

Capernaum – Chaos or Miracles

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How does one survive without being “officially” a person? For people such as refugees or the poor, there may be no paper trail of their existence. In Capernaum, from Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, we see a boy struggle with life in that kind of world.

Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) is about twelve years old (based on a doctor’s physical exam), but looks younger. His family can’t provide for him or his sister. Soon they arrange for his sister’s marriage (at fourteen) and in anger Zain leaves to live in the streets. He is resourceful and determined. Soon he his taken in by Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw), an Ethiopian refugee without proper work papers. Zain becomes a caregiver and provider for her and her baby son Yonas. Zain survives by his street smarts, but when Rahil is arrested Zain’s resources become vary scarce as he tries to care for Yonas on his own. After Zain is arrested for a serious crime, he ends up in court where he demands justice, suing his parents for bringing him into this world.

I’ve seen two of Labaki’s previous films (Caramel and Where Do We Go Now?). Both are lighthearted with a bit of bite. They deal with women finding empowerment. Capernaum is a much different kind of film. It is about those who have no power and little chance at empowerment. It makes it clear that for people such as these, no help can be forthcoming without some sort of paper that proves you exist. The film portrays these people with dignity. The film is especially focused on children in this plight. It makes it painfully clear that these are people like us, but who are trapped by systems that make them invisible and powerless. This vision of humanity led to the film winning the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes.

Labaki used many non-professional actors in making this film in order to have their true reactions. Many of those in the film actually lead lives such as we see on screen. There are refugees and undocumented people. Often she would describe a scene for them and let them play it out in their own words and emotions. This brings a sense of realism into the story. The kinds of heartbreak that we see onscreen are daily lives for many.

In production notes for the film, Labaki says the title comes from the French word “capharnaüm” which translates as “chaos”. She also notes that it is the name of a biblical city, which was “a place where miracles could happen.” She goes on to say, “That’s what’s going on in the world right now. It’s a mixture of chaos and miracles every day.” It is interesting to look at the film with those two concepts in mind. We can ask ourselves where we see the miracles in Zain and Rahil’s world? There is hope in the film, but it is certainly elusive. But the very idea of having hope in such a dark world could be a miracle itself.

Capernaum has been nominated for a Golden Globe and is Lebanon’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar consideration.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics