Locarno Diary #2: Lost men and religiosity

by Elisa Giudici

Heavens Above, a new Serbian film

Locarno has been in, let's say a strange transition period. I first started going when Carlo Chatrian was the Artistic Director (back in 2012). He left for the same position at Berlinale and his successer Lili Hinstin wasn't there long -- under two years which generated a lot of gossip. Giona A Nazzaro is the new director but because of COVID-19 this is his first edition. Maybe I was just lucky or my tastes align more with Nazzaro's than previous directors but this festival started with more energy and verve. (Until now my perception of Locarno was that it held a small number of amazing discoveries diluted in a pull of dull old fashioned auteurial selections.)

I choose today's two movies following my gut instinct and I especially liked how the films were having almost having a dialogue between themselves, despite major differences in tone and setting. Both of them are about the end of the world as known for the male protagonist. Hinterland and Nebesa (Heavens Above) try to describe how men struggle with change and the death of their previous idealogies...

NEBESA / HEAVENS ABOVE (Serbia)
A man finds himself with a halo floating above his head, like a saint in a painting. Stojan is a good man, yes, but not a religious one. He still considers himself a Communist, even though he had to flee from his house and country to Serbia when his nation collapsed. Now he is a refugee; He lives in an hovel and can't find a decent, honest job. In his condition a halo is only the source of more trouble, so his gruff wife tries to encourage her lovable, caring husband to sin or choose a vice to make the halo disappear from above his head!

Miracles don't disappear or explain themselves in Srđan Dragojević's reflections of a post-communist country inspired by French writer Marcel Aymé's short stories. Once religion was prohibited but now it is the new battlefield for Capitalism to conquer, making even miracles a matter of personal gain and opportunity.

Nebesa starts as a visionary comedy about the triad formed by religion, state, and capitalism but becomes darker chapter by chapter. A minor quibble:  Dragojević's movie is pretty heavy-handed with its allegories, symbols, and recurring biblical motifs. 

HINTERLAND (Austria)
I'm always surprised by how many famous books and movies portray the Austrian Empire as a decadent Golden Age just before World War when death was already luring right outside the Ringstraße (one example for all: Joseph Roth's The Emperor's Tomb). Especially when compared to how few detail the abrupt end of that Empire. Hinterland sounds like the answer to my eagerness for fictional works set in this specific shocking moment in which a might empire suddenly disappeared from European maps. Presented in the Piazza Grande section (which houses more mainstream fare), Stefan Ruzowitzky's movie is a real Austrian blockbuster.

I hope the still above will help you understand the unique visual imagery that is created with artful usage of VFX effects. Imagine something like 300 or Sin City but meant as an homage to German Expressionism; a movie with real people acting on a background that seems almost drawn, as if in a painting or comic book with a very peculiar, gloomy style. Hinterland shows Wien as a city in which no building, street or furniture is straight. Everything is crooked and distorted like in an optic illusion or a nightmare.

The story is about Peter Perg (Murathan Muslu) and his brothers in Arms, returning in Austria after two years spent in a terrible Russian concentration camp as a prisoner. There is no Emperor or Empire anymore, jazz and socialism replaced walzers and imperialism and everyone wants to forget the war and move on. Everyone except men who fought for a country that does not exist anymore, followed by ghosts and night terrors, now shamed by their own families for following their honor. Sounds so dramatic, right? 

Hinterland is not exactly cheering, but this is only the prologue of the movie. You see, Peter was a brilliant inspector specialising  in catching serial killers before the war. You can imagine the rest, but let me tell you this: there is a strong resemblance with a long list of TV series like Sherlock, Hannibal, The Alienist, but without leaving behind the topics of war and toxic masculinity. And Peter has a really complicated relationship with religion, too. All of this (and more) in only 99 minutes! I enjoy this movie a lot, thanks to a plot that seems so fitted for a TV show and an Anglophone audience but with a strong mitteleuropean touch and a dry and rough way of conveying its messages.  

Comments

[Dan]

From your description of "Hinterland", it sounds like an expressionistic relative to "Babylon Berlin". And it has the magnificent Liv Lisa Fries! So promising.

[Dan]

Well, HINTERLAND is going on the list.

[Elisa G]

@Dan You're correct, strong Babylon Berlin vibes here. And Liv Lisa is lovely!

From Hinterland:
Perg: "Who are they? Communists?"
Liv: "They are dadaists, anarchists, surrealists...everybody is a sort of -ist now"
Perg:"And you?"
Liv: "I am a realist. And a pacifist".