Rowan Sullivan

176

Dark Skull – A Dark Journey into Subterranean Bolivia

Dark Skull

Dark Skull Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Dark Skull isn’t your typical character driven drama. The dark environment of the Huanuni mines and Bolivian city streets are a long way away from familiar landscapes. Pretty much the entire film is set in darkness, either during the nighttime above ground, or underground during the daytime. Day starts to blend into night, and scenes above ground start to dissolve into the scenes below ground as both are shrouded in darkness. We journey into the subterranean with Elder as his mind is consumed by the abyss. Is he in control, or is the environment driving him mad?

From: Bolivia, South America
Watch: Trailer, Vimeo
Next: A Touch of Sin, Tony Manero, El Dorado XXI

The Breakdown

We’re introduced to Elder in a vice filled opening. We see him chase after a woman and rob her, before retreating down a dark alley to drink and smoke. He looks like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, lurking in the shadows whilst he fondles a crack pipe in his hands. Next he’s in a hectic night club, before he’s being chased along the street by a group of men. The opening establishes Elder’s depraved existence in the shadows of an anonymous Bolivian city.

From there, Dark Skull cuts to a nighttime search party of men and women lighting up the hills and canyons of rural Bolivia with flashlights. The juxtaposition between the noisy built up urban environment in which Elder resides, and the silent, empty rural environment is noticeable. Perhaps Dark Skull isn’t following a linear narrative.

The search party finds what they’re looking for in the dead body of Elder’s dad, slumped on the ground behind a shrub. The group starts preparing his burial as Elder is recalled from the city. He’s been ordered home to live with his lone grandmother and assume his dead father’s job in the mines.

No one asks him whether he wants to work in the mines. Down inside the earth, he tells his new colleagues that the job is only temporary and he will be moving on. However, after seeing him struggling to get by in the opening, it doesn’t look like he has anything to escape to. For the foreseeable future, it looks like he’ll be spending his days under the same ground his father is buried in. It’s not an environment he’s accustomed to.

In the first day or two underground, director Kiro Russo immerses us in the harsh, claustrophobic underground tunnels of the mining complex. Firstly, the noise of the machines is so overbearing that the director dissolves a shot of Elder’s face into a montage of close ups of machinery. It’s as if Elder’s becoming part of the machine. With it, he’s losing his personality to the collective workforce, much like the machinery montages you might have seen in early Soviet film. Secondly, it’s dark. The only light comes from the head torches and flash lights the miners carry. Everywhere else is a dark indistinguishable abyss.

Overwhelmed by the machinery, Elder ventures out into the abyss on his own to take a break. As he wanders, Russo starts rotating the camera vertically as well as horizontally to further disorientate us as Elder gets lost. Alone in the darkness, the scenes reminded me of the Nietzsche quote: “when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”. Elder has ventured into the abyss, and the abyss has consumed him. His life and freedom has been vanquished, and he’s now stuck toiling in his father’s life until he joins him permanently underground. With nothing to strive for and his own ego being dissolved, he drinks and smokes to escape thinking about his fate. He makes petty acts of resistance, like pissing on his colleagues bags and feigning injury, to throw up a middle finger to his fate.

But you could also view Dark Skull as a story of one man’s degeneration from working in the mines. Later in the film, Elder is pictured in the same nightclub as in the opening. It’s not clear if he’s revisiting the club, is imagining it, or he’s stuck in a cycle. Perhaps the opening scenes are a flash forward to an Elder already messed up from working in the mines. Seen this way, Dark Skull becomes film about the degradation of one man forced to work in an oppressive mine instead of the story of a drunkard without ambition.

What to Watch Next

Kiro Russo draws on a wide range of influences to make Dark Skull. Most noticeably, Dark Skull feels and looks like Chinese Noir, such as the dark underworld of The Wild Goose Lake and the depraved characters and hopelessness in A Touch of Sin. (Speaking of depraved characters and hopelessness, you could also watch Pablo Larrain’s Tony Manero and/or Post Mortem).

Dark Skull also references early Soviet film techniques that you see in its montages and disorientating dissolve cuts of Man With A Movie Camera. Albeit in this case, the techniques are used to create hopeless confusion, instead of excitement for modernity.

Or, for more mining in darkness in rural South America, check out Peru’s slow film El Dorado XXI, featuring another mine isolated in an incredibly harsh environment.

177

Anori – A Love Triangle Framed by Greenlandic Myths and Icy Landscape

Anori

Anori Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Anori’s sweeping shots of Greenland’s snow covered glaciers and mountains sets an awe-inspiring tone for the film. The ethereal landscape shots add to the mystique of the Greenlandic myths spoken between Anori and Inuk that frame Anori. However, the beauty of the set up and intriguing mythical framing unfortunately don’t carry through into the bulk of the movie, as a simple love story and black and white battle between good and evil fall flat.

From: Greenland, Europe/North America
Watch: Trailer, IMDb, Website
Next: Tanna, Romeo + Juliet, Miryza

The Breakdown

Anori starts with panoramic shots of Greenland’s glaciers and snow capped mountains backed by loud idyllic music, not too far off the airy sounds of Sigur Ros. It sets a tone of wonder and mystique that supports the dreamy scenes of Anori telling Inuk the Greenlandic myths she learnt as a child. With both of them dressed in white and shot brightly, these scenes feel like they’re happening in another realm.

From the mystical opening, the film cuts to Inuk falling into a coma after an accident at sea. After Anori flies to the hospital to be with him, the film jumps into the past to show us how Anori and Inuk met and how their love for each other grew.

Anori relies on images and sound to convey emotion. Like the characters in a Terrance Malick film, Anori and Inuk don’t say much to each other and appear completely in awe of each other. Their racing emotions are carried in the melodramatic soundtrack whilst their growing love is visualized in the newly blossoming Spring landscape. The images and music are nice, but not unique. They hit the expected notes of a romantic TV soap or telenovela, which makes the melodrama a bit obvious.

The lack of dialogue also hinders the film’s ability to develop the characters. As the flashback scenes are bathed in bright light and melodramatic music, we only see Anori and Inuk through rose-tinted glasses. We never see another side to their lives or hear about their backgrounds, so we can only take them as unquestionably good people. This portrayal becomes more problematic when the antagonist to their love is revealed and is presented as evil incarnate. Whilst the antagonist has his own problems, they are shown to be caused by them, forcing us to accept that he is simply evil, with no chance of redemption. The lack of dialogue and character development leaves the three main characters as a bit one-dimensional: they’re either good or evil, leaving no room for our interpretation.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for quick tragic young romance,the obvious place to go is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Baz Lurhmann’s adaption is the most extravagant. Tanna is a great modern day adaptation set within the Kastom tribe from Vanuatu.

Or if you’re looking for films which combine love and myths, check out the melodramatic Mirzya from northern India.

Or for more indigenous films from North America, check out Edge of the Knife or browse the NFB catalogue of free indigenous films and take your pick.

178

Once Upon a Time in Venezuela – Sundance Film Festival

Once Upon a Time in Venezuela starts with images of the famous Catatumbo lightning silently flashing over Lake Maracaibo. The lightning is an atmospheric phenomenon unique to the region, occurring for 140 to 160 nights per year. It’s what drew filmmaker Anabel Rodriguez Rios to the region, but ultimately became one of the least interesting happenings in an area that serves as a microcosm for the socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela.

The once thriving town of Congo Mirador becomes the focus for this observational documentary. It’s a town built upon stilts above Lake Maracaibo, complete with a church, a school, and houses. Everyone gets around on boats, whether they’re commuters, cake sellers, or musicians. The water is the lifeblood of this town. It’s their road that connects everyone, their bath to wash in, and their sewage.

Therefore, it’s not a surprise that sedimentation is brought up first. It’s the most urgent problem for the community, and not the political movements happening in the big cities elsewhere in the country. Sedimentation blocks their transportation paths by making the routes too shallow for boats to move, it blocks the free flow of sewage, and pollutes the towns’ supply of fresh water. Shots of people washing juxtaposed against shots of dead fish, highlight the immediate problems that sedimentation causes. As the film progresses, the director makes sure you can see the physical change in the community. Houses are uprooted and moved on boats, and plants start to take over the once fluid waterways.

It’s not clear where the sedimentation comes from; perhaps it stems from the oil reserves that have started contaminating beaches nearby, or maybe it’s just happening naturally. However, what is clear is that if nothing is done, this town will gradually be consumed by dirt and pollution, thus becoming uninhabitable.

The town community need the help of higher powers to help. However, Once Upon a Time in Venezuela chooses two rivals to center this documentary to represent the division in the community: Mrs. Tamara, a Chavista and town representative, and Natalie, a local teacher. Their rivalry, and the progress it hinders, represent the political division in the country and the slow decline of the town, the sinking state of Venezuela.

  • Mrs. Tamara: the Hugo Chavez fan girl, with a large spacious house, Hugo Chavez dolls, and a farm along the lake. She’s shown boating around the lake to buy votes and relaxing in her hammock.
  • Natalie: a humble teacher and single mum that appears apolitical and lives in a small house. She’s shown hand washing clothes and teaching kids.

The class distinction between the two, and way they talk about each other (Natalie rarely mentions Mrs. Tamara by name) help us choose our allegiances in Congo Mirador and Venezuela. Ultimately, their rivalry distracts us from the decline of the town, just like the presidential rivalry between Maduro and Guaido has provided a distraction from resolving the political and social crises in Venezuela.

If you’re looking for more films from Venezuela like Once Upon a Time in Venezuela, check out La Soledad or It’s All Good for two more films set within the crisis You could also watch Hermano for a Venezuelan film featuring gangs and football. Or, head to our Sundance Film Festival hub, if you’re looking for more reviews from the festival.

179

The Silence of the Forest – An African ‘Black’ Savior Movie

The Silence of the Forest Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

The Silence of the Forest is a modern take of the white savior trope in Africa. However, instead of featuring a white European, there’s a Central African black man, Gonaba, who returns home from Paris to help modernize his country. The problem is, just like the Africans didn’t need the Europeans, the Pygmy people that he tries to civilize, don’t need him.

From: Central African Republic, Africa
Watch: Kanopy, IMDb
Next: Dances with Wolves, Cry Freedom, N!ai

The Breakdown

Gonaba returns home dressed in a suit, signifying his connection to the western word. He’s called a white man by the boat’s captain, because compared to the rest of the locals on the boat, he’s overdressed. Whilst he obviously isn’t white, it’s the first sign that he’s lost his connection to the people of the Central African Republic and will never be able to truly see life from the African perspective again.

A few years later, Gonaba is one of the country’s leading ministers. Problem is, he still feels like he hasn’t achieved what he set out to do; help the country he returned to. The country is still keeping the population distracted from poverty with Independence Day parades and bike races and not trying to implement positive change. His disillusion with the direction of his country is marked by his dull khaki dress. His attempts to westernize the country have failed, so why should he wear a suit like the rest of the ministers, a symbol of Western success.

So, to restart his mission, Gonaba chooses to fight for the rights of the Pygmy people. They’re looked down upon by everyone else, who treat them like animals. The President even tells Gonaba that they’re just a ‘tourist attraction for the country to exploit’. Gonaba, having studied Jean Jacques Roussea in France wants them to be seen as equal. However, instead of changing the minds of the people he knows, he goes on a white savior mission into the jungle to educate and civilize them.

Like Dances With Wolves, Pocahantas, and Avatar, Gonaba heads into the wilderness and becomes a honorary member of the indigenous Pygmy society. Trouble is, like previous white savior films, he never sees the indigenous people as equal to himself. He never accepts them and their culture for what it is, seeking instead to civilize them up to his standards of modern society. He still views their way of life as backward and something he can change to create modern pygmy men and women that can integrate into African and Global society. Ironically, the way he treats them is just a repeat of the good-intentioned European colonists’ treatment of African people a few decades before.

Unfortunately, The Silence of the Forest is as heavy handed as it’s American predecessors. It’s interesting to see the white savior narrative used in a purely African film, but because it hits all the same tropes as previous films, it doesn’t feel new or unique. It also fetishes the lives of the indigenous pygmy people. Their lives are portrayed as idyllic and at one with nature, as you would have seen in Dances with Wolves and Avatar. They’re never portrayed from their own perspective. Instead of immersing ourselves in their way of life, The Silence of the Forest gives us a voyeuristic glimpse of a world through the eyes of a do-good African. It creates a world that feels separate from our society, a world that we dangerously can’t imagine existing or disappearing from the modern world we live in.

180

Bacurau – One Fun Brazilian Genre Free For All

WARNING: SPOILERS

Bacurau is one fun genre film with a bunch of memorable cult action film characters on the level of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator or Song Kang-ho in Snowpiercer. Problem is, it builds up the cult vibe a bit too high, which leaves the ending doomed to underwhelm.

However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t watch this film. On the contrary, you should. It’s still exciting. Plus it presents a positive message (in a High Noon esque conflict with a lot of violence that I cannot advocate) of a diverse community in rural Brazil that comes together to stand up to attacks from local politicians and foreign interests. It’s an obvious allegory to a Brazil that has become increasingly polarized due to the rise of the Brazilian far right, led by President Jair Bolsonaro. It is interesting to see that this adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game arrived in the U.S. the same weekend as The Hunt, a U.S. adaptation of the same book, considering both countries are led by right-wing leaders.

Bacurau is the name of the fictional isolated town in the heart of Brazil where the film takes place. The town is a Brazilian copy of the towns you’d expect to see in an American western. It’s surrounded by dusty land and sparse vegetation, with only one road leading into the town. The same road all the town’s buildings are built on. The residents also represent a diverse range of backgrounds, like you’d expect to see on the American frontier (see First Cow), with black, white, and brown people, young and old, from a variety of professions. It’s almost a utopian community of the future, where everyone gets along and respects each other, or maybe it just feels utopian because communities like this are disappearing.

They’re rightly suspicious of and prepared for anything that tries to break their community. A couple stationed a mile outside of their town uses walkie-talkies to inform the DJ in town of any visitors, who then uses his speakers to pass their warnings onto everyone in town. Their lines of communication allow them to avoid interacting with the lying local politician and prepare themselves from the attacks of foreigners. They can survive by embracing outcasts and standing together in the face of danger.

There are even a few clues that the community has done this before. The town’s museum is full of memorabilia from countless rebellions against the government. The town’s residents encourage outsiders to visit the museum to show off their pride in their independence, and also warn them of what might happen if they don’t receive respect. In one of the last scenes, the museum curator asks the clean up crew to leave the mark of a bloodied hand on the wall to serve as another mark of their resistance. Their respect for their local museum indicates a respect for their history. Knowing their past, allows them to be better prepared for the future. In this case, their experience defending their town from the government and foreigners in the past has made them more wary of the same people today. It’s a lesson for everyone living today: know your history or fall victim to a cycle of racism and division that has been reborn in the rise of the prejudiced right-wing governments of the world.

If you liked Bacurau, director Kleber Mendonça Filho and co-director Juliano Dornelles handpicked an assortment of films that map the rich cinematic universe to which their inventive creation belong for the Lincoln Center in New York. Whilst the film series had to be cancelled due to Coronavirus, many of the films listed are available for streaming. Check out their program here or the link below, featuring works by John Carpenter, Sergio Corbucci, Eduardo Coutinho, and more.

https://www.filmlinc.org/series/mapping-bacurau/#films