Both Michael and I are of the vew that all the films are too long. We both sleep through moments and hope they are not the same moments when at the end we try to piece together the red line. We start in Row P, my first time being so far back as I am used to Row 2 (last minute tickets). Despite the distance, Michael hears well, the many subtitles help. I draw the backs of heads in front of me, and become familiar with the center point where the hair begins its swirl. All so far have hearing devises behind their ears. I am amid an undiluted gathering of middle class.
However there is one character who reminds me of Mr Emmerson (Room with a View). A large man, he stands straight, looks directly at me and asks unashamed questions to me a stranger. His wife, smaller rounder, is a playright (she has the T shirt) but I never find time and space to find out more, except they are from Felixstowe. My time is absorbed, with the social contract here: I stay in the luxury of the White Lion, in exchange for taking care of Michael. (His mobility has deteriorated dramatically since his trip to the the lakes, when he struggled up and down stairs, finally having to exit on his bottom, his legs had become so weak.) It is a fine exchange, he is as I remember him stimulating company and full of a desire to partake. As I also recall, food is central to all action.
Prime Minister
How fitting to have Molly on the first panel. Not only to recall the doc fest origins, (I do like origin stories, and it reminded me of when one year I sat next to her mother, an elegant eloquent woman). But she gave a sharp spark to the discussion after the film: what was the motive? Some parts felt like labour propaganda. her perfect husband, what was his role? Nick Robinson chipped in: lets call it how it is, she resigned because otherwise she would have been pushed, she’d become deeply unpopular. Is this film a pitch for a potential new role as ambassador for the UN. However a man in the audience at the back rebalanced the discussion. Her remarkable achievements at so young an age (37) stepping into the unexpected office, birthing a child soon after, ruling with compassion, like Obhama, showing emotion, curbing gun control after the Christchurch mosque bombings, affirming women’s abortion rights. What was her downfall? May be we missed this moment as I am not clear nor was I aware of the vitriol against her in the COVID years. She spoke about feeling imposter syndrome from a young age, her childhood admiration for the Antarctic explorer Shackleton. Of course, I admired her. Clean-cut, clear, compassionate.
Put your souls on your hands and walk
The fist of a double sided coin: the view from Gaza (tomorrow, Israel) Sepideh Farsi’s powerful documentary follows Hassona through a year of video calls. Hand held, shakey, deliberately, it is uncomfortable to watch on both layers. Such a smile, (such perfect white teeth – challenged by Jeremy afterwards), a optimism that faltered once. Hassona: “I have nothing to loose. I feel special here, for we have survived, all that has happened. I cannot leave. I bare witness. Everything has a purpose.” Her reaction to October 7th: we showed the world we could fight. In the discussion afterwards wth Nick Robinson: ‘What we saw was a human being, what we mostly see is dehumanised’ Palestinians are revolted by the word ‘resiliance’. Cut in between are voices of the news, often just the lips moving (an effective technique). Not sure about the time out to fetch the cat from outside the door – I realise it humanises the director, but that was a long take. Is it depression, are you depressed, she asked. Dispursion, Hassona replied. Will Hassona will attend the premiere “Of course!” she says, optimistically. She and her family were killed on 16 April by an Israeli airstrike.
Mr Nobody against Putin
Fabulous beginning, such quirky joy. We are drawn into love of our unlikely hero. A loner, who had found a path as a vidoegraphyer and events organiser in the largest school in the town. The town is Karabash, a mining town in the Ural mountains remarkable only for its renowned levels of toxic waste – copper smelting. Ah yes, i can know this land from a past just as I can smell that cabbage soup.
Come the war with Ukraine, the happy go lucky life changes when central government introduced the compulsory propaganda campaign to all schools, “patriotic education policy”. With a healthy dose of humor, ‘wink twice if you don’t believe what you’re about to say’, the film travels into a darker place, as Pavel captures how fear corrodes a small town, how a regime conscripts its people into becoming ideological tools – in short, how to brainwash a generation. We know Pavel will not get the prize for being the most popular teacher, as he was. We know it’s going to be the Party Member History teacher. How did Pavel get away with it, someone asked afterwards? I think because he appears a harmless loner, an eccentric. Pavel, at great personal cost, left Russia for an undisclosed destination, so brings us – through a Danish company – an insight into Russian life before and during a regime of fear.
Kalikellett 