Review of Passenger

Passenger (1963)
Passenger
31 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This movie primarily deals with recollections of memories through a series of still images and documentary style story-telling, as we see a woman traveling on a ship narrating the events of her life to her husband, after a chance meeting with a person aboard the ship, who bears resemblance to a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz she had once saved, during her tenure as a Nazi officer. The film is all but an expanded portrayal of a chance meeting with a stranger aboard a ship, who somewhat bears a stark resemblance to a past acquaintance, strictly dealing with recollection and recounting of memories. This film also happens to be one of Andrzej Munk's unfinished works, setting the tone for the film in terms of the filmmaker's unfinished goals and dreams. Munk's friends took it upon themselves to finish this project as an ode to a visionary filmmaker, who met a premature end to his life. This piece of work not only reflects the protagonist's memories and trauma, but also that of the filmmaker, Andrzej Munk. The protagonist, now a retired Nazi SS officer, is aboard a ship with her husband, sharing figments of her experiences at a Jewish prison at Auschwitz, where she had certain personal encounters and conversations with a Jewish convict, who had everything but freedom. Although, at the helm of the story, it is a fleeting moment or a passing moment at its best, the film captures a score of unspoken emotions and sentiments. What the film tries to capture is a vague retelling of an incident wherein a person whom we believe to be a past acquaintance, could be more than what meets the eye. What makes it more intriguing is the prospect of reconciliation or reuniting of two opposing or similar sentiments or feelings. The film is unique in its storytelling and visual style as it follows a non-linear narrative with narration and documentary-style flip book image storytelling. The unfinished segments of Munk's film have been filled with pictures and artist's impressions of sequences to give the story a more coherent sensibility and feel. However, the segments that Munk himself had shot are a treat to watch, as he had tried to look at a chance meeting with a stranger bearing a resemblance, to be nothing but a fleeting or a passing moment, yet arrive at a point where the character consciences come to a consensus or maybe even come to terms with the harsh realities and truths that they were previously unaware of. Since the film primarily deals with the resurfacing of thoughts ignited by an external agent, in this case, the chance encounter on the ship, it is the utmost responsibility of the film to weave all nostalgic events and lost memories in realist terms, and in totality. Also, this film deals with the plights and sufferings of a country in general and its people in specific. Hence,it is important to observe the intricacies that the above specified film has to offer.
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