Wojciech Jerzy Has (director)
Mr Bongo films (studio)
15 (certificate)
119 minutes (length)
07 September 2015 (released)
02 September 2015
Joesph (Jan Nowicki) arrives at a Sanatorium to visit his dying father. He has found a nurse and she finds the doctor While he is searching for him a world of its own creation is revealed. He is told that his father is dead but also not dead in this world. He begins to descend into a realm of history, identity and abstract thought. He meets his father but also sees himself. He walks through a jungle of wild animals and strange people. The forest of rooms and objects cross in front of him but they do not restrict his way, they reveal much of his life to date.
A surreal blend of visual narrative and flowing images. The visual narrative is both simple to follow but also dense to consume. The density comes from the intensely heavy visual field which is vast and populated. By using a fish eyed lense, we can see a very wide area of space.It has then been cluttering with objects of varied size and type. thanks to this it becomes so rich and so absorbing as to be mesmerising. It is also so well selected in shot and content as to be natural. This allows for a smooth viewing experience for the audience but also repeated returning to the images. You try to see if you missed ideas within the shot. This I found becomes a very fun game of what does that mean and why is that there. I loved the cluttered space and mixed with the irratic time scape, it is simply to die for.
So the film looks good and feels good but I found a slight problem with the piece. Even for a film lover and obscure image consumer like me, it has problems. The film in places feels as if the director wants to get to the heart of a point. He keeps however blurring this with an unnatural visual narrative. The Orthodox Jewish motif is the one that sticks out. He has this reoccur but always shifts the image into being merged within the life of the character. I understand why and yes it is very picky but apart from this very small thing, this film is a masterpiece! I was also let down by the lack of additional content. Mr Bongo make great release choices but do not add value and that is a sin with a film like this!