Warsaw Film Festival 2017

Two years ago, the Warsaw Film Festival introduced me to the world of independent cinema. My pre-conceived expectations of unapproachable, difficult movies were quickly shattered - instead I’ve found myself easily engrossed in action on the screen and fell in love with all the different styles of moviemaking I’ve encountered.

This year I’ve been especially interested in Chinese cinema, with multiple movies from that country catching my eye. The one that especially stood out was “To Kill a Watermelon” by Zehao Gao, which won the Grand Prix. It tells the story of a farmer who grows watermelons and sells them by the roadside. He’s a simple, humble man. He’s glad that his wife is loyal to him. He’s disappointed that his son doesn’t respect him. And he wonders why some of his watermelons crack. Maybe this mysterious customer will tell him? The customer tells him a lot of smart things. And he also used to grow watermelons! He must be a good man.

This premise is used to set up a story about morals. The movie is centered around one event, its aftermath, and most importantly, how it changes the main character’s perspective on the world around him. Director uses a lot of lateral shots, which gives the viewers neutral perspective, distancing them from the events. The scenes are often long, relying on characters performing various chores rather than cuts to keep viewer’s interest. This style of filmmaking plays into the unexciting setting, seemingly showing the life in countryside from a wide angle, letting the audience see everything and making it clear that there’s nothing hiding outside the camera frame. Instead it incentivizes to dig deep into what’s on the screen, beneath character’s smiles and gestures.

Another production with interesting camera usage was South Korean “Seeds of Violence”, which talks about ragging in their military, as well as society in general. It presents a particularly unfortunate circumstances of a soldier whose immediate superiors are a bunch of jerks and bullies whom constantly treat him like shit, and who’s in charge of a pretty dumb private, who is also older in age. The society (and his immediate higher-ups) expect him to keep that guy in check, mostly by beating him whenever he’s disobedient. But while the military hierarchy overwrites the age hierarchy, him being just one grade above and simultaneously younger creates a particularly awkward setting.

And what amplifies that is the extremely claustrophobic camerawork. The movie was done in a 4:3 resolution, and for most of its runtime, the lense is glued to the main character, never letting him get too far. His back fills nearly half the screen during all the scenes of walking or approaching someone, and in the moments of dialogue or action it’s almost between the actors. Long, uncut shots further push all the uneasiness, anxiety and frustration that are driving the story. It’s straight-up despair inducing.

And speaking of enduring terrible circumstances, “City of Ghosts” was absolutely haunting. Showing not only the atrocities done by the terrorists on the populace of Raqqa, but also following not-so-happy lives of men who managed to escape it. It shows how they became citizen journalists, how they continued to coordinate efforts to document the state of the city once they were out, and how they constantly faced threats and hardships which trailed behind them long after they left their homes. This one was devastating to watch.

Going back east, “Out of Frame” was another movie filmed in China, but this one’s a Hongkongese production. It’s a story heavily based on facts, and it’s about life of artists in Beijing area, exploring the kind of hardships they go through when trying to express themselves through their products. Most of them are poor, as their work is scrutinized not only by potential customers, but also by government making sure that the messages fall within the party line. However, some do manage to make it big, although it often means creating safer, less politically-charged work. This relationship between big money to be made, government threatening your livelihood and trying to preserve artistic integrity is what forms the basis for the events of the film. There are some really creative shots here, conveying the hierarchy of power and feelings of being trapped with good staging and camera angles. But really it’s the subject matter that sells the movie.

Finally, I want to mention two Swedish titles. One I can’t recommend enough is a short stop-motion animated musical, “The Burden”. If you ever have a chance, I highly recommend you check it out - it’s beautiful to look at, the songs are funny and clever and the entire concept is very simple yet unique and stylish. Perhaps it’s my love for architectural miniatures speaking, but this one just etched into my mind effortlessly.

And with that said, I’m gonna finish this write-up with “A Hustler’s Diary”, the winner of audience's award. This one follows a man named Metin, a turkish immigrant living in Swedish suburbs. He’s a small time crook - the type of guy you call to set your car on fire if you want to commit insurance fraud. He writes down his criminal escapades in a journal, inspired by his late father’s statement that “every man should write a book”. In an unlikely chain of events, the journal ends up in hands of head editor of a publishing company - and he loves it, believing that it’s material for a bestseller. But the author never intended to show it to anyone, after all, it’s pretty much incriminating testimony for himself and all his friends for countless crimes.

This premise serves as an entry point to showing the clash between Sweden’s working immigrant class and wealthy men of culture, who are surprisingly similar in some aspects. It’s also a story about family - Metin is trying to replace his father as the head of household, but even though his life choices are well-intentioned, they serve his goal poorly. But all in all it’s a pretty light, funny story - it shows the grit and danger of such lifestyle, but it doesn’t sour itself with mentions of innocent victims or long-term damage. Even law-abiding citizens should be able to empathize with some parts of main character’s viewpoint, or at least learn something about immigrant societies in western countries.

And with that out of the way, it’s time to hibernate. Good night.