Looking back with compassion
Vali Nechifor, a young filmmaker at the beginning of his career, follows a logical thread where, during the pandemic, there didn't seem to be any.
Vali Nechifor, a young filmmaker at the beginning of his career, follows a logical thread where, during the pandemic, there didn't seem to be any. The year 2020 and what came after meant anything for society, but not all peace and clarity - that's for sure. The virus created fear, fear bred the need for resolution, and the need for resolution quickly brought solutions - good or not, necessary or absurd. But it's not the usefulness of political decisions in society that I want to talk about, but the humanistic intention that Nechifor places at the heart of the movie's story.
Joseph (played by Mircea Solcanu) is a disabled painter with terminal cancer who lives alone among religious paintings and developed photographs. He is also an orphan. Because he feels the end is coming, he wants to draw closer to God through the mystery of baptism. The decision to assign such a destiny to him is useful to the smooth running of the story, although the biographical preface was not imperative to empathize with the protagonist. However, the small screenplay gimmick doesn't do the movie a disservice. Aside from a few expository lines at the beginning (by the priest with whom Joseph consults by phone about the idea of being baptized), the acting is flawless, and the framing and imagery are the product of a fine eye for detail, sustaining the sense of tranquility in a chaotic cosmos that Nechifor wants to cultivate.
In the first sequence of the movie Joseph unveils, in a dark room, a photograph of a family - a memory he has lived or would like to live. It looks like the start of an action movie, an Antonioni-style detective story (a kind of Dobrogian "Blow Up"); and the movie doesn't disappoint the first instinct. The man leaves to get baptized, with two policemen on his trail. A sad chase. He's asked for a statement he doesn't have. "Who can stop him from reconciling with his father"? The law, the cops say. The law - without a clearly motivated statement, citizens are not allowed to leave the house. I appreciated here the specificity of the characters, well studied by the writer-director. We see the classic dynamic between the bad cop and the good cop, a couple of absurd, even funny policemen: the young, arrogant (Robert Dobre), who doesn't know exactly how to exercise the power given to him by the law, and the older policeman (Geo Dobre), who has been through life, who is totally dissatisfied with what he does - but nevertheless does well and leads Joseph into the house, giving him little tips on how to get around the law.
Nechifor wants to tell us that he has hope. The police officer Voicu (Geo Dobre) and the homeless young man (Gabriel Rosu) who carries Joseph back to the beach are the embodiment of the savior, the benevolent otherness that the desperate man needs at crucial moments. The movie could be read as an ideological plea for physical death to save the spiritual life. Looking as empathetic and ultimately simple (like Gabriel Rosu's character), I prefer to notice in particular the good intention to talk about civic spirit and friendship born ad hoc between two people whose path does not follow the institutional laws of the world they are in. In other words, compassion is a fundamental value, even in unstable times.
(Elena Călinoiu, cinepub.ro)
This week’s premiere: “Baptism”, by Vali Nechifor, Thursday, November 14, at 21:00 EEST, on CINEPUB.RO
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