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joannategnerowicz
Reviews
Ishi ga aru (2022)
Melancholic and thought-provoking
It is a story of an accidental encounter between two people, a mysterious young woman and an eccentric man who seems to crave human contact. Nature and the mountainous landscape are not less important than the characters and their conversations.
There are so many possible meanings of this film. Is it a story about the modern loneliness and the invisible barriers which separate people? About the contemplation of nature and the feeling of unity with nature? The real, deep meaning of life? Two individuals who rebel against the cult of productivity and success and seek happiness in "useless" things?
In any case this is a film which will definitely make you think about your life and life in general if only you have enough patience to watch a very slow-paced movie where seemingly nothing happens. A love for nature and contemplation will surely help you appreciate this film.
Eyimofe (This is My Desire) (2020)
Powerful and deeply human film
"Eyimofe" focuses on the hopes, desires and struggles of ordinary Lagosians, forced to daily confront a bleak world ruled by money and largely desensitized to human suffering.
It depicts the lives and problems of its main characters, Mofe and Rosa, with gritty realism and in a very engrossing way, with some unexpected plot twists and without a moment of boredom. The stories of the two protagonists are brilliantly and poignantly interwoven. The movie also renders the atmosphere of Lagos so compellingly that one feels literally transported to the city.
Mofe's inner strength, integrity, quiet dignity and stoicism are profoundly moving, though he is seemingly a man like millions of others. And one can't help being enthralled by the proud Rosa's attempts to change her and her sister's life for the better.
All the characters in the film seem very authentic - and often as inscrutable as real-life humans. Many of the characters elude any attempts at a simplistic classification into good people and villains, though it is clear that the most powerful ones are also the most ruthless and the most callous.
To me, the most fascinating and admirable character - apart from Mofe - was the landlord Vincent. It is easy to misjudge him, but his humanity touched me on a very deep level. Thanks to characters like him the heart-warming possibility of hope and solidarity always remains present in this film. This is a very beautiful and thought-provoking movie which I can highly recommend to everyone.
White Powder (2016)
Brilliant indie gem
If you are looking for a film which not only entertains, but can also make you think, "White Powder" is for you! On the surface, it is just another story about drugs and gangsters; on a deeper level, one can see it as a film about the sheer unpredictability of life, the complexity of human emotions and the importance of not jumping to assumptions. At the same time, there are moments of brilliant, grotesque (and sometimes very dark) humour scattered throughout this movie...
I loved the subplot where one of the main characters is torn between his possessive girlfriend and another girl. I also loved the fact that none of the gangsters in the movie is a simplistic bad guy. However, the film does have some shortcomings - the female characters could have been more developed and more complex and I found the ending somewhat unconvincing.
There's some brilliant acting: Jason Deer is truly menacing and very believable in the role of one of the gangsters, Judson Vaughn is brilliant as a good-natured, but cunning petty drug dealer, George McCluskey is quite impressive as a paranoid gang boss, and Nicole McBride gives her all and more as a possessive, nagging girlfriend. I have also to mention the hilarious cameos by the two co-directors, Dziko Kazembe and Marek Dabrowski, and by Sarah Fronckevic...
Last but not least, the soundtrack by Rémi Brossier is splendid and perfectly fits the film!
Szpital Przemienienia (1979)
A seminal and powerful movie
This is undoubtedly one of the most profound and brilliant Polish films, directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Edward Zebrowski (1935-2014) and based on a novel by a survivor of the Holocaust, Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006). It is, first of all, a deeply moving and terrifying portrayal of the cruel and absurd world of a mental hospital. Merciless in its depiction of the psychiatric staff and their methods, this much too little known film can be rightly seen as a crushing indictment of authoritarian psychiatry and compared to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". The scene where a young doctor openly denounces the methods of his colleagues and questions the very concept of mental illness is strikingly reminiscent of the writings of (among others) Erving Goffman and Thomas Szasz.
Not less importantly, this film - possibly uniquely in the history of world cinema - offers a haunting and blood-curdling vision of the Nazi genocide of psychiatric patients. At the same time, it provides an unrivalled image of the degradation and later extermination of a large part of the Polish intelligentsia by Nazi Germany.