From Alfred Hitchcock to Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman to Jean-Luc Godard, Europe has birthed many of film’s greatest innovators. And that’s just to name a few. The more you dig into the world of European film, the more and more gems you find. Scroll down to find the best European films currently reviewed on FilmRoot, or pick a country if you know what you’re after:
In Towards the Battle, Louis, a French photographer, gets lost in French occupied Mexico in the 1860’s. He wants to photograph the French-Mexican War, but gets lost in the Mexican wilderness trying to find it. However, his encounter with Pinto, a Mexican peasant, gives him the companion and support he needs to carry out his quest.
Louis is in Mexico as commissioned by the French army. He holds a permission slip from the French general which acts as his pass to freely travel the region without reprimand from the roaming French army. It’s the only thing that separates Louis from the rabble of the French army. If he loses it, he’d be conscripted into the army, or, if he’s lucky, sent back to France.
Whilst he can escape from the marauding French army, he can’t escape from the Mexican wilderness. As the scenery changes from mountainous scrub-land to deep rain-forest, Louis is (literally) one step away from a premature death. It’s obvious he can’t survive by himself with two horses carrying his huge amount of photography gear. Luckily for him, a Mexican peasant named Pinto finds him when he’s starving and gives him the food he needs to survive.
From that moment on, they become Don Quixote and Sancho Panza-esque partners. Louis is Don Quixote: a leader of a well off background that loses himself in the quest of one of his hobbies. Instead of chivalry, Louis drags a mountain of photographic equipment across the Mexican wilderness in search of a war that doesn’t appear to exist. When Pinto finds him, he’s already gone a bit mad in his quest to capture a photo of the elusive war. Pinto is Louis’ Sancho Panza: a Mexican peasant that knows Louis is mad, and doesn’t understand him (he doesn’t speak French), but happily goes along with Louis’ delusional quest because he’s got nothing better to do. Along the way, he saves Louis a couple of times, and subordinates himself to him to allow Louis to live out his fantasy. The Don Quixote allegory gives Towards the Battle a timeless feel, and gives an extra layer to Louis’ madness and his slow progression to his own awareness which he reaches in the final scenes.
From the scenery to the setting to the characters, Towards the Battle was one of the films that flew under the SBIFF radar. It’s a well made update of Cervantes’ Don Quixote applied to the French occupation of Mexico. It’s used to show the madness of the French in Mexico and the absurdity of the French occupation of Mexico. The French (Louis) and Don Quixote both live a world away from the reality.
Angelika Levi’s Absent Present is one well made documentary. If you’ve ever listened to an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s equally well constructed Revisionist History you’ll find similarities with Angelika Levi’s documentary method. Like Revisionist History, Levi starts with an event – in this case the disappearance of her friend Benji – and unravels the threads linked to it to uncover a whole chain of associations from colonialism to migration. Having explored more of the threads linked to Benji’s life, we see his disappearance in a new light.
Uncovering the Mystery by Looking at the Big Picture
Benji’s disappearance is a mystery that Levi tries to unravel by following his path. Born in Namibia, he was one of many young Namibian children that were brought to the GDR (German Democratic Republic otherwise known as East Germany) having survived the Cassinga Massacre (a South African bombing raid on Namibian independence fighters). He spent 11 years in East Germany from ages 3-14 at an orphanage and German school, and became a naturalized East German citizen. However, in 1989 the GDR collapsed, East and West Germany reunified, and Namibia gained its independence. As a result, Benji was sent back to Namibia despite having grown up in Germany. Back in his birth country, Benji was kidnapped by Angolan soldiers and forced to join their liberation struggle. He managed to escape and returned to Europe disguised as a tourist. He eventually made it back to Germany, but disappeared a few years later. Levi travels from Germany to Namibia and back to Germany in Benji’s footsteps to try and investigate his disappearance. But ultimately, as she retraces his steps she finds the foot prints of more African refugees in Senegal and Spain and starts to uncover the hypocrisy of anti-immigration policies. By following the footsteps of migrants like Benji, Levi gives us a look at the big picture, which gives us a context to help explain Benji’s disappearance.
The Hypocrisy of Anti-Immigration Policy
Levi starts her broader investigation with the Columbus monument in Barcelona, a grand 19th century column that celebrates the discovery of the New World. At the top, Columbus points towards his ‘discovery’, a world where Columbus received gifts of welcome and from which Spain gained incredible wealth and prosperity. The hypocrisy of the monument is that it celebrates a migrant that crossed oceans in search of wealth, whilst today the same country that benefited from the wealth of other continents turns away migrants with similar intentions.
Levi also highlights the underlying racism behind Spain’s treatment of African migrants in the Canary Islands, juxtaposing images of white tourists relaxing on beaches and running through woods with images of Africans detained in camps just meters from tourist hot spots. The fact that these camps, that almost specifically hold African migrants, are built on the foundations of former slave camps makes it all the worse. Seen in this context, it’s not surprising that Benji tries to return to Europe disguised as a tourist with bleached hair. For Benji, and the African migrants that are detained in Spain, Europe is the only option left in their attempt to survive. It’s “Barcelona or Barsaak” (the Wolof for land of the dead). Viewed in its historical context, the anti-immigration policies of Europe look like an evolution of the legacies of slavery and colonialism. The Africans were forcibly brought to Europe and the Americas as slaves, forcibly exploited in colonialism, and now they are forcibly shut out of the riches their work and land created, detained as migrants.
Whilst the big picture Levi uncovers in Absent Present doesn’t answer why Benji disappeared, it does connect Benji’s forcible removal from his home country, and forcible repatriation to a brutal history of exploitation. It uncovers a hypocritical and racist history that takes African bodies when they’re needed and discards them when they’re not. Seen in this context Benji’s disappearance is not a mystery, but a symptom of the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and illegal immigration.
What to Watch Next
If you’re looking for another documentary that attempts to find a missing person, check out Luis Ospina’s A Paper Tiger. It tries to track down a Colombian artist named Manrique Figueroa by interviewing all the friends he left behind.
Or if you’re looking for more films in which migration and colonialism are a major topic I’d recommend exploring the following:
Atlantics – a feature film from Senegal that conveys the impact of a lost generation venturing north on their friends and family back at home.
Tenere – a documentary that tracks migrants crossing the Sahara desert on the back of Mad Max style converted trucks in Niger in quests to reach Europe.
A Storm Was Coming – a documentary that artistically represents how the Spanish Empire erased the indigenous cultures of Equatorial Guinea.
Or if you’re just looking for more documentaries narrated in English by great German film makers, check out Werner Herzog. His film, Little Dieter Needs to Fly is a great place to start. It’s a film about the life of a German war survivor that becomes a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Have you ever been displaced or exiled from your home? Or simply been away from home for more than a few months? Well you may sympathize with Jonas Mekas when watching this film. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is a walk in the shoes of a displaced person. It’s the incredibly intimate diary film of Jonas Mekas’ return to Lithuania to see his mother and family after 25 years in exile.
Here’s an example of three minutes from the film.
Why Watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania?
To see what makes a great diary film (films like a diary, often shot home video style)
Experience the life of a displaced person by seeing Mekas’ return from exile, shot mostly from a 1st person perspective
It’s one of the most intimate films you’ll see (you’ll be transported into Mekas’ life)
Because it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry because of it’s cultural, aesthetic, and historical significance
The Breakdown
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is made up of three parts:
Shots of Mekas and his brother in Brooklyn, New York from just after they were moved there from displacement camps in Germany
Footage of their return to Lithuania after 25 years in exile
Hamburg, the place they were both detained in Nazi German slave labour camps after fleeing Lithuania
The most time is spent on part 2, shooting their reunion with their mother and family after 25 years in exile. But because of the way the film is shot, it never really feels like they were home.
How the Style of the Film Emphasizes their Displacement
There are a few things you’ll notice straight away when watching Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.
There are a lot of cuts! The entire film is made up of short shots, so you never really have time to concentrate on one image.
There’s no diegetic sound (ie. sound that comes directly from the film shown, apart from two singing scenes). All the sound comes from the melancholic piano soundtrack or from Mekas’ brother’s narration.
As above, there’s also no dialogue. The whole film is narrated by Mekas’ brother.
When these three stylistic elements are combined in the film, it makes everything appear to be a memory from the past. Each short shot is like another memory of their former life in Lithuania.
If you’re not convinced, think of your childhood. Can you actually visualize a 3 minute long memory from your childhood with all the emotions you felt without relying on old VHS footage? If you can, you’re gifted. If not, your memory is probably composed of a load of snippets of things that made you laugh, smells, tastes, and people’s faces. This is exactly how Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is composed, with short snippets of fresh fruit, family faces, and funny memories.
So even though the film is from the present, it looks like a distant memory that can never be relived. The style matches their inability to return home, after fleeing the country as Nazis and Soviets advanced in WW2.
Conclusion
Because the film appears like a distant memory it’s pretty melancholic and nostalgic all the way through. The sounds of the piano and crackling film also don’t help to lift the mood.
Melancholy aside, it’s no surprise that this film was added to the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It intimately depicts the experiences of a displaced person abroad and returning home. No other filmmaker allows the audience to get as close to the displaced person experience as Jonas Mekas. For this, and because it’s a beautifully made film, you should watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.
If you liked Pan’s Labyrinth you’ll love The Devil’s Backbone. It’s another great film from Guillermo del Toro set during the Spanish Civil War. The Devil’s Backbone is a horror film with depth, unlike a bunch of the horror films around today. So go ahead, watch this and let your imagination loose!
Why Watch the Devil’s Backbone?
It’s one of Guillermo Del Toro’s first and best films (he’s famous for Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellyboy, and Blade)
You want a horror film with a bit more depth than your classic slasher or psychological thriller
It’s another great movie about which plays out during the Spanish Civil War (also check out Lengua de las Mariposas and Pan’s Labyrinth)
There’s also the classic Guillermo Del Toro creations and style
The Breakdown
“What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber”
As the opening lines above are read, a plane flying across the night sky opens it’s bomb doors to drop bombs on a village below. One of the bombs falls into the ground, brutally injuring a young boy.
The boy was a member of a small walled sanctuary in the middle of the Spanish desert. The sanctuary is full of young boys left by men and women fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The place is run by an old woman with a wooden leg and an old man who has a love for books and curiosities (typical del Toro style). The location is like the wild west and is ripe for the spookiness that unfolds.
Del Toro perfectly stages the horror scenes. Each one follows the rhythm written by the many horror films that preceded it. There’s the first ominous sighting early on in the film which goes unnoticed by all of the characters. This reveals the ghost to us. Next, the protagonist sees the ghost and the rest of the character’s usually don’t believe him. This identifies the audience with the protagonist (we’re the only one’s who know of the ghost). Then finally, in the climax, the ghost is revealed to all.
The Conclusion
The Devil’s Backbone is one of Guillermo del Toro’s best. Just like Pan’s Labyrinth it contains a young kid living during the Spanish Civil War. However, this film is a more classic horror. Even though Pan’s Labyrinth borrows from the horror genre, The Devil’s Backbone will give you more spooks. What’s the best thing to do? Watch both!
Brothers. If you have one you’ll appreciate the sibling rivalry in this Icelandic farmer dry comedy film. Ram’s has got two that hate each other. It’s all because they are both trying to be the best at breeding rams in a very unpopulated valley. There’s only room for one of them. But when serpie (a livestock disease) threatens both their herds, can they come together to keep their heritage alive?
You must be logged in to post a comment.