We are back at the Delphi, and successfully purchased tickets like 20 minutes before the show started. We just couldn’t get there any earlier after “Nasake no hikari” was over. The movie theater was actually reasonable well filled, considering that the Delphi holds 1000 people. Ah, the Delphi… with “Ai no Mukidashi” we saw the best Berlinale film of all times here. Even though I always felt their organisation is pretty terrible, I generally like the theater. It’s beautiful and evokes memories of a wonderful movie, and the only Q&A where I have ever posed a question.
Zamatoví teroristi (Velvet Terrorists)
Slovak Republic/Czech Republic/Croatia 2013, Peter Kerekes/Pavol Pekarcík/Ivan Ostrochovsky, 87’
In this three-part film made by three directors, each director is following the lives of a former terrorist in the 80s while they talk about what happened at the time and reflect upon their terrorist acts. Stano tried to blow up a Communist party viewing platform out of a whim, and has been doing odd jobs after coming out of prison. In his free time, he likes to blow up things. He tries to date, and after a few humorous failed attempts finally meets a woman who seems to share no interest with him, but they find bonding moments anyways. Fero tried to kill the president of Czechoslovakia within a small, organized group. Having lost contact with his girlfriend at the time, he has since married and teaches his two sons how to make bombs and drive cars dangerously. When he tries to contact the past girlfriend again, she refuses to speak to him. Vladimir’s battle is still very much alive. He believes that the system today is just as rotten as it was back in the day, and takes a young female apprentice whom he gives military-style training, teaching her how to fire weapons and defending herself.
Death count: 0.
Personally, I thought the best part of the film is its humor. Of course I was interested in the stories and the characters and especially the past of these people, but what made the film so brilliant was definitely its humor. The most iconic element of the film is probably the cute little “pling” you hear every time there is an explosion (instead of the actual sound of the explosion). Apart from that, many comical scenes are interspersed throughout the film, showing the absurdity of both the characters and the socialist regime they were fighting against. What they do doesn’t always make sense, and the tale of their failed terrorist attempts mirrors their failures in life. With this combination of humor and political seriousness, the characters are portrayed as lovely losers, and as such they have a lot to show us.
The directors were at the screening, and there was a Q&A afterwards. Unfortunately the questions were pretty bad, and the answers seemed very awkward. The worst part was that the directors did not have an easy time answering the question “what is documentary and what is fiction in your film?” Honestly, I think it’s pretty easy to tell what is real and what is not. Everything that looks like scriptwriting, everything that is overtly funny, everything that is a “story” in the film is obviously scripted. Everything the people say, like what they think about their acts of terrorism etc. are obviously real life occurrences and real reactions. This combination actually makes the film really precious, because it’s executed so well. I don’t know why the directors couldn’t just say that, why they really wanted to stress how everything in the film was “true” – how all the dialogue was having people talk and run the camera, how their funny sound effect is related to something in real life. I didn’t want to hear that. I love a good mix between fiction and documentary, and this film executed such a concept wonderfully. Perhaps I should ignore what they say about their own film, and just enjoy the film itself.
Overall, “Velvet Terrorists” was a great surprise. It totally doesn’t take itself seriously, and I laughed multiple times during the screening. When I read about what the film would be about political terrorists talking about their past, I was afraid it might be one of those extremely boring political documentaries, but didn’t anticipate that it would be so funny. This was another great success in the Delphi!