I’m not sure if it’s just that I hit the day five morning crash of MIFF but I struggled to keep my eyes open in this Irish-made, quietly languid documentary about a Ukrainian health sanatorium that seems stuck in the 80s.
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I found this documentary hard going. If I’d seen it at the start of the festival and less tired, I might have been awed by the technique of overlapping footage with disconnected but meaningful audio.
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This must be one of the most convincing ‘docufictions’ I have even seen. Peter Kerekes spent five years filming in a Ukrainian women’s prison and has crafted an austere and profound drama where the voices of the women are integral to the story.
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Valentyn Vasyanovych knows how to frame and hold an image. This slow and poignant exploration of the aftermath of war is like a series of tableau, stitched together to create a compelling and rigorous story.
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On the surface, this may seem like a standard arthouse movie about 1950s Soviet life. As it is, this small but intense story of two canteen workers in a secret Soviet research institute is hard to look away from but, when you learn more about the DAU project, it becomes remarkable.
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Image via miff.com.au
Okay, a confession up front; I micro-napped throughout this film. It’s tempting to think this is why I have no idea of the storyline but I suspect that wide-eyed wakefulness wouldn’t have helped all that much. Continue reading
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