ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Oscar shortlist

Close – End of childhood innocence

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Coming of age can open the world in new ways, but at what price? In Lukas Dhont’s Close (which is Belgium’s entry for Oscar consideration) we watch a sudden and tragic shift from the idyllic world of childhood to thechallenging world of trying to fit in to the expectations of society. The film has been shortlisted for Best International Feature.

Thirteen year olds Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) are best friends. We first see them as they spend a summer day running through the commercial flower field that Léo’s parent work. They have sleepovers where they unconscientiously sleep side by side. They tell each other stories. Léo sheds tears as he listens to Rémi masterfully play his oboe. Theirs is a Edenic existence that exemplifies the innocence of childhood.

When school starts, they head off to their new school together. As the camera moves back, we see that they are alone in the crowd of other kids they don’t know. They are physically demonstrative of their emotional closeness. Then one day at recess, a girl asks Léo, “Are you two together?” That question changes everything.

Léo is now aware that there are social expectations at play. He immediately begins to create distance between himself and Rémi, who until now has been his most intimate friend. He begins to avoid Rémi, leaving Rémi even more alone in this new environment. Léo joins the hockey team as a way of proving his masculinity, even though it is new and awkward for him.

On a school field trip tragedy happens. Rémi is dead. The school is distraught. We watch as grief counselors help the children address their grief. But Léo remains silent and stoic. His grief is put on hold, because how can he deal with such feelings—including guilt—without looking unmasculine.

The only other person who might understand is Rémi’s mother Sophie (Émilie Dequenne). But how can he go to her when he feels like he is so much at fault for what has happened? Sophie is also struggling to find answers and comfort in the aftermath of Rémi’s death. She feels as if she has lost two sons, because early in the film she calls Léo, the “son of my heart”. It is the tentative reaching out of these two people that will open the possibility of healing.

Dhont draws on his own experience of growing up queer, but he is careful not to label the boys’ relationship as anything other than childhood friendship. It is the very threat of labeling that pushes Léo to separate himself from his friend and soulmate. To further prove he doesn’t fit such a label, Léo goes out for hockey. Hockey is convenient because not only is it considered manly, but he is able to hide. He wears a uniform, so he is an indistinguishable part of a group. He is masked, and in a sense, caged.

This is a film that focuses on isolation. Adolescence is often a time when the perceived conflicts of social expectation cause changes in the way we see the world. Léo by distancing himself from Rémi isolates them both. Rémi is abandoned. Léo, even as he tries to fit in, is still cut off from meaningful relationship—certainly from anything as meaningful as he has shared with Rémi. That isolation proves deadly for Rémi. It also is totally stifling for Léo in his grief.

Léo’s entry into adolescence turned out to be an expulsion from the Eden he had known with Rémi. He will never be able to go back. It will be challenging for him to move into his new world. It will be even harder if he is only allows his perceived role to define him.

Photos courtesy of A24.

All That Breathes – Ode to life

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Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for World Cinema Documentary and the Golden Eye award at Cannes, is the story of two brothers trying to run a bird rescue in New Delhi. If that were all it was, it would be a run of the mill doc. It would be interesting, but not enthralling. But there is far more to this film than what is found in that simple narrative. The film has been shortlisted for Feature Documentary Oscar consideration and is nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award.

Saud and Nadeem have had a lifelong interest in black kites, the raptors that fill the sky over their city. They have taught themselves how to care for injured birds and struggle to run a hospital for the injured kites. They are seeking funding for a better facility, but currently run the operation in their home. Part of the problem the kites face is the severe air pollution in New Delhi. Every day several of the raptors fall from the sky. Saud and Nadeem do the best they can with limited resources.

Courtesy of HBO

The film also shows the way much more is going on all around them. We hear news reports and distant sounds of protests over the rising religious discrimination in India. We see that even though this is a very urban area, nature is always near as we see cows, pigs, rats, ants, frogs, and monkeys that are living in the streets as well.

Sen uses his camera in such a way that when he breaks away from the narrative of the two brothers and their birds, we see nature as not something separate from the lives of people, but as a setting in which humans also live. Often the camera creates a kind of visual poetry for us to see life as it is lived by many creatures that we usually overlook.

The result is a kind of ode to life. It is not so much about the human place in the world, as it is about the broader concept of life of which we are a smaller part. And hearing the political turmoil that is certainly not part of the natural world, we may even get the idea that humans are not at the top of the evolutionary process.

Hope – The Possibility of Light in the Darkness

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“You don’t have to love me just because I’m dying. But I need to know that you’ll help me.”

A diagnosis of terminal cancer inevitably brings upheaval and stress into any family. Hope, Norway’s official Oscar Submission for Best International Feature Film (it made the shortlist, but wasn’t nominated), is an intimate and intense look at the dynamics within a family, and especially between spouses in such a troubling time.

Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) have been together for many years. They have three children together as well as three from Tomas’s first marriage. They have built very separate lives through the years, but have managed to stay together (although not married). A few days before Christmas, Anja learns that she has a brain tumor, likely a metastasis from her earlier lung cancer. Such tumors are invariably fatal.

The film follows Anja and her family through a very difficult eleven day period. They try to keep the diagnosis secret through the holiday, but with Anja’s reaction to the steroids she’s been put on, it becomes necessary to reveal the truth. She is struggling with thoughts of mortality, but also with concern for her children, especially her teenage daughter. Tomas and Anja also must deal with questions within their relationship and how their lives have evolved over the years. All the while they must deal with holidays with friends and with various medical appointments to determine any steps to be taken if there is to be any hope of survival.

At the very beginning of the film is a note that says. “This is my story as I remember it.” The film is based on director Maria Sødahl’s experience of getting such a diagnosis. (Obviously, she recovered.) That is what makes the film such an intimate portrayal of a very trying time in her life. As Anja struggles through such tumultuous times, trying to deal with holidays, family, drugs side effects, and the frustrations of even a good medical system, we can see something of the reality Sødahl lived.

The setting of the Christmas/New Year holidays is interesting because those are days we associate with hope—whether it involves Christmas presents or the dawning of a new year. But for Anja and Tomas, much of what they are seeing is hopelessness. Doctor after doctor tells them there is no hope—only short-term remedies.

That makes the film’s title stand out. This is a film in which hope, while it seems so elusive, is central to the characters’ lives. Hope, as it plays out in the film, is not just about a possible medical outcome. It applies to the future of Tomas’s and Anja’s children. But the real focus of hope that we see here is on healing the rift in the relationship between Tomas and Anja that has grown through years of distraction and routine. If they have only a little time left together, will it be a time of love or only struggle?

The film leaves all its questions unresolved, and in so doing it challenges us to consider our own level of hope.

Hope is available in theaters and through virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of KimStim Films.

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?

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

Oscar Watch – Possible Live Action Short Nominees

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This is the time of year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences begins to winnow the fields of some of the Oscar categories, such as the short film categories. I’ve had the chance to see five of the films shortlisted in the Best Live Action Short category. Each of these films has multiple awards from film festivals. They all have a chance at getting an Oscar nomination. Nominations will be announced January 22. Here is a brief look at each, and my thoughts on them.

Madre (18 minutes, directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen). A mother is in her apartment when she gets a call from her six year-old son who is on a trip to the beach with his father. The father has gone off and not come back. The boy is unsure even what country he is in. Slowly panic begin to fill the mother as she tries to find a way to get help to her son. Comments: The film does well to build the sense of fear and helplessness. A very interesting premise that is well executed.

Wale (20 minutes, directed by Barnaby Blackburn). A black English eighteen year-old is trying to establish a business as a mobile mechanic. But having learned the trade in a juvenile offenders prison is not a great recommendation. One man takes a chance on him, but when Wale begins work on the car he finds a body in the trunk. How can he avoid being framed for the crime? Comments: One of the joys of shorts is how they can so concisely tell their story—in this case a thriller that builds quickly once the discovery is made.

Detainment (30 minutes, directed by Vincent Lambe). The film is reenactments based on the transcript of interviews of two ten year-old boys who in 1993 abducted a toddler from a shopping mall and killed him. The two boys have different personalities that come out in the questioning, one is fearful, the other defiant and aggressive. Comments: This is a chilling story. The James Bulger case was world famous, in part because the two boys were tried as adults. It is hard to fathom what would lead two children to such a evil act. There is no psychologizing included. We just slowly get some of the facts.

Fauve (17 minutes, directed by Jeremy Comte). Another film with two ten year-old boys. As they play in fields and in an abandoned plant and quarry, they eventually get into trouble—trouble that they cannot get out of on their own, but there is no one to help. Comments: As you see the tragedy coming, it’s hard to continue watching, but we keep hoping that there will be some help that will arrive in time.

Marguerite (17 minutes, directed by Marianne Farley). The story of an aging woman and the visiting caregiver. After learning that the caregiver is in a same-sex relationship, the woman remembers back to a time in her past when she was in love, but never admitted it. When she confesses to the caregiver, the caregiver’s response is kind and tender. Comments: There is a great sweetness to this film (as opposed to the darkness that dominates the other films). The tenderness, kindness, and love of the caregiver makes this my favorite of these shortlisted films.