“Kindness Survival”: Berlin Review | Review

Director/Screenplay: Rolfe de Geer. Australia. 2022.96 minutes

Rolf de Heer’s silent allegorical drama explores themes of savage and endless landscapes. With blatant images of hatred and violence. and sickness and blood. A vast cross-country his trek, the film begins with a barred box abandoned in the burnt clay of the Australian desert. In this cage is a black woman (Mwajemi Hussain), shoeless, ragged and left to die. However, she was resourceful, traveled far in search of safety, and managed to break free from prison. It’s not clear whether we’re watching or seeing a symbolic structure. increase. It’s impressive, thought-provoking filmmaking, but rather lacks momentum and ideas in the third act.

A world of white oppression ruled by guns and ravaged by highly contagious and deadly diseases

This is De Geer’s first feature film. Charlie’s country (2013), which premiered at Cannes and won Best Actor in a Certain Perspective for star David Grupiril. This marks his return to the Berlin Film Festival competition, the last slot he occupied in 2003. Alexandra’s projectThe film’s unique approach and strikingly cinematic influences ensure a sound festival run. While it should be of interest to arthouse distributors, the film is likely to be a theatrical curio rather than a huge success.

One thing is for sure, the photo opening is great. The camera pans across what appears to be a scale model of some sort of atrocity, with a tiny figure brandishing a tiny gun over a menacing victim. However, when the camera is pulled back, a knife cuts into the diorama, revealing it to be Cake. Rendered with sugar and marzipan, chocolate he is an execution camp laid on a thick layer of sponge. The murmuring of partygoers is muffled by the gas masks they wear. And outside, the BlackWoman, neglected by her guests and in her trailer’s cage, sends her to the desert to endure the plunging daytime temperatures and the dry, dusty pink-beige light that colors everything, including the sky. It is attached to the transport vehicle.

However, Black Woman manages to break free, and her subsequent journey continues through Tasmania’s lush mountains. On her way, she meets two of her many who want her own death, those who see her as a threat to her, a brown girl (Deepti Sharma) and a brown boy (Darsan Sharma). encounter. With a sparse and breathtaking score that sounds like the wind blowing over an open tomb, this quest has a mythical quality throughout, and even when faced with scenes of unimaginable brutality, the removal I have a feeling

A non-actor, Hussein (a social worker by day) brings expressive physicality to a role that begins in a desperate struggle for survival and shoes without dialogue. world. It’s a world of white oppression ruled by guns and ravaged by a highly contagious and deadly disease.

But these are threats that BlackWoman oddly doesn’t seem to be involved in, for reasons that become clear at the end of the film. It’s an ending that might prove a split. The message can be read in several ways. A darker interpretation is that privilege always prevails, and white versus black persecution and discrimination are inevitable. Optimists, on the other hand, may prefer to stick to the proposition that the mind is free and endures, no matter what else.