Das Ritual

Das Ritual / The Ritual is a Bulgarian short film from 2005 DVD collection Lost and Found, this particular short film was directed by Nadejda Koseva.

Das Ritual is about the generation differences between families that remain in their homelands and their child which has gone west. Georgi is getting married at Niagara Falls while his family has the wedding party back in Bulgaria. They communicate through telephone, the son’s a new cell phone and the mothers’ and old rotary dial phone.

Of this difference in culture and time, Koseva explained in the Lost and Found press kit (rougly translated from German) that,

I was too busy with the question on how the time and place can overcome history. I am convinced that there is a strong connection between people, a connection that can overcome distance and the course of time. Film has a lot to do with the handling of time. Dealing with geographic distances, however, is less explored. It concerns me as knowing, that my friends in New York go to sleep in this moment – or the idea that while I’m at home, someone else does something somewhere else entirely. Such considerations I wanted to highlight.”

The thing about time and place in this short film is that the viewer is not necessarily aware of the fact that the bridge and groom are not going to their own wedding party since they are on a different content entirely. The understanding of time is also messy here since Bulgaria is a solid seven hours off of the Eastern Standard Time at Niagara Falls. Yet this time difference is totally obscured by the much larger one, the time difference between the parents and their son. The mother sends over a pair of earrings that the bride is suppose to traditionally wear on her wedding day, and Georgi’s new wife does not wear them. But the parents will never know since in the portrait photos her ears are covered by her hair and Georgi’s hands. Likewise the parents have a very traditional wedding party, with circle dancing and two whole bands of musicians to play polkas. Georgi and his wife however are not participating in any traditional rituals themselves (outside the ritual performance that is marriage, and the vows) as they are having a destination / vacation wedding at Niagara Falls, being more tourist than perhaps anything else.

The warning here is that as the world changes, so do the people growing up in it and there is a great risk at to rituals as the younger generations might drop them and they will be lost forever.

Invisible State

Invisible State is a short Irish film directed by Aisling Walsh for the DVD anthology collection Visions of Europe which was made in 2004 for the European Union. Walsh’s rant is very Irish. In fact it’s very Irish Traveller. Yes there are two l’s there in Traveller, it’s for a reason.

Travellers are very low class Irish with gypsies ancestry and they generally travel in caravans through Ireland doing odd jobs. Hence names like “Tinkers” which are more job descriptions turned derogatory as now Country / Settled people and Travellers hardly mix since the stereotyping is so negative. The point being Walsh mentions Romanians, Lithuanians, and then says Irish during his rant when the government called them non-nationals – these are the nationals that Irish Travellers originally were as gypsy people’s so he is correct, by degree and some time removed those people are now considered classically Irish even if the mainstream society tends to marginalize them. Likewise is also says something about Ireland’s treatment of Travellers as more outsiders than anything, which is weird because Travellers tend to be more what people think of as “traditionally Irish” minus the moving around so much bit.

This short film is also rather American Irish as well due to the mass of Irish people coming over to American during their times of hardship and the signs of “No Irish Need Apply” – Ireland knows these people’s plights because they too have walked that path and they know what it is to be the smuggled bodies.

Basically what Walsh is saying here is that human smuggling is a problem, partially caused by the movement of people due to hardships who just want to have a chance at new life, and who might even be from countries which are part of the EU. However human smuggling involves a contract and an understanding about what is going on, there is consent given. Generally with human trafficking there is no consent given and it is just for exploitation purposes. The two are related but not the same, and Walsh wants us to learn the difference so that we can stop confusing the issues at hand and fix the real exploitative trafficking.

This short film clip can be watched below:

Prologue

Prologue is a short film directed by Bela Tarr for the DVD anthology collection Visions of Europe which was made in 2004 for the European Union. The ironic things about this film is Bela Tarr is from Hungary, and the concept of this film deals with food. This film is also appropriately titled due to the nature of the state of Hungary’s economy in the early 1990’s, before they joined NATO and soon after, the European Union.

This short film is shot in black and white done in one long dolly shot to the music of Mihaly Vig. It has a feel to it of the end of a war, or during a war even. I think that is suppose to make it more universal, all countries have had wars and recessions and things that cause massive amounts of people to be in need of food and other assistance. This film is saying, as it is called “Prologue” that all good, strong economic countries started out in similar ways (or have at least had moments of weakness) where they could not keep themselves feed. It is also a story of hope, very Horatio Alger rags-to-riches. But then it is also a warning, all nations can rise just as easily as they can fall.

From a historical Hungary context, Tarr seems to be saying that before Hungary was in NATO and the EU and joining together with the rest of Europe it was in a sad state. And it was. Hungary was in a horrific recession in the early 90’s. The country had just finished it’s Soviet Era and became a republic, a shock so powerful to the Soviets it had a part in bringing down in the Berlin Wall. But the economy end up in a sad state afterwords, broken off from that Union that had created subsidies to keep things cheap, it had trouble keep itself together.

This short film can be viewed below:

Europa

Europa is a short film which was directed by Damjan Kozole for the DVD anthology collectionVisions of Europe which was made in 2004 for the European Union.

This short film takes place on the river that divides Slovenia from Croatia. The man in Croatia ask the sign-hole-diggers if they were going to Europe, where would Croatia go. The two Slovenia’s answer that Croatia gets to go to the European Football Championships while Slovenia gets to go to the EU because “Everybody goes somewhere” but the thing is both side want what the other sides has – Slovenia want the football championships and Croatia wants to be in the EU.

The thing about them discussing football is that it is quintessential European – and the country that is winning it is not in the European Union. It is a critique on what makes Europeans what they are, and they put so much pride into their football clubs to have the country that is outside of the EU be winning at football challenges that ideal of the football as a cornerstone of European excellence. Think of Paul the German octopus that got honorary Spanish citizenship for it’s World Cup predictions this past year, that is an example of how serious European countries get into football. Now Croatia is still in Europe no matter what, so it gets a but muddy, but that is part of the point as well – the “grass is always greener” idea. But identity is such a muddy idea to start with that I find I do not mind the little technical bits here that muck it up.

This short film can be watched below:

The European Showerbath

The European Showerbath is a short film directed by Peter Greenaway for the DVD anthology collection Visions of Europe which was made in 2004 for the European Union.

Basically various people with flags painted on their bodies hop into a shower and mull around in the water together as the paint runs off their bodies, mixing into the drain at the bottom. However not all the countries get to be in the shower, by the end the Czech Republic and what looks like little Estonia are left outside the showerbath but still in the shot, much like that they are in the European Union but they are only side characters and not major players. The shower is too crowed for them to come in since the water is drying up.

This has to do with the allocation of resources, Germany and other founders started off strong economically, which is part of why the European Union works. However, once you start to bring in other players who might not be as stable you see fissure cracks in the whole system, until eventually it collapses and everyone is stuck out in the cold together. Yes, all of their economies are still separate but they work together and the value of money is impacted by each player. Hence why England still uses pounds, they are worth too much on heir own, and they see no reason to risk weakening their economy for Euros. There are other countries as well that have kept their monetary unites separate for various reasons. But that is part of what this short is about, if the countries are suppose to be together and they are not equally sharing than it damages the whole and everyone looses resources in the end then.

This short film can be seen below:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaiq3d_peter-greenaway-the-european-shower_shortfilms