A Potpourri of Vestiges Feature
Playground Trailer
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By Anirban Lahiri
For the last five years, a consistent image of the
contemporary culture hovers over the Indian film festival circuit. All
screenplay writers have been shameless to suggest violence and sex to be the
primal ingredients for a successful dramatic structure. Some called it tension
and eroticism, some (like Godard) the girl and the gun (of course, the mention
of the girl signifies the male point-of-view). But, the celebration of
violence was always there, sometimes hidden in ornate metaphors (as in Ray’s
Days and Nights in the Forest (1970)) and sometimes explicit (Kill Bill (2003 –
04); Bad Guy (2001)).
In the recent world cinema, as well as Indian flicks,
violence is celebrated in a continually increasing way. Last year, in many
festivals, Rajeev Ravi’s Kammatipadamhas bagged the best film award. The film
portrays eye-for-an-eye kind of violence. This is not the only instance for the
average Indian celebrating muscle power and bloodbath. Bahubali (2015),
although wrapped in the silverlining of the epic, provokes the same emotion in
the average viewer.
The situation is probably worse in the contemporary
Europe, especially in the Eastern blocks, since the official disintegration of
the Soviet and the internal warfare. The ISIS and the subsequent refugee crisis
have made the matter worse.
Violence is rampant. Xenophobia and homophobia are on
the rise. People are impatient. Freud could
not have explained these simply as the civilization in discontent any more.
Marx would have seen these as the faultlines of capitalism. But, an Ease
European State, such as Poland, has seen enough of practical Marxism to stay
away from that.
Kowalski, a documentary filmmaker of some repute, made
his debut in feature-length fiction with Playground. The film revolves around
three teenagers of diverse background, and the school President’s speech on a
normal day.
In a quite meaningless manner, insane violence breaks
out, leading to homicide. The incident is based on the reportage of a similar
event in the Great Britain. The location is changed to Poland. The intent is to
comment on the general possibility of such an incident, and the process behind
that, anywhere in the world today.
The Director of the film, Kowalski, and the Executive
Producer, Mirella Zaradkiewicz were
present in the 15th PIFF to discuss the film with us.
Samar Nakhate, the Cretive Director of the 15th PIFF,
initiated the conversation, after which A Potpourri of Vestiges and other media
took over.
Q. As a Director, when you began working on this topic, how did you plan
your approach?
A. We researched a lot. Violence is mundane these days. I wanted to
trace the roots of violence. This particular incident caught my attention
because it taps the unprovoked violence – the violence in the air – quite
nicely. I came to know about the incident from newspapers. Afterwards, I sought
out opinions of professional psychologists and psychiatrists who specialized in
the behavioral conduct disorder of psychopaths.
Q. Was there any deviation from the original event?
A. Yes. In the actual event, it was two teenage boys.
I added a girl. I wanted to show that violence was not gender specific, although
the exact narrative of violence may change when the gender changes. That
happens because of the sociology of the gender itself.
Q. How did you prepare for the shoot?
A. I made elaborate researches. I had lots of
questions in mind. Why people want to injure other people or their properties.
The kind of pleasure one derives from meaningless, or meaningful, violence. The
film showcases this process of questioning, partially. However, most of my
questions remained unanswered.
We took 9 months in casting, and location scouting.
Coming from documentary background, seeking a realistic answer to the history
of violence, I was determined to employing non-actors, realistic locations,
natural light and hand-held camera for the film.
I did not want to glamourize violence. Hollywood and
most other cinemas do that. I wanted, instead, to see violence as a
tremendously negative phenomenon, with questioning eyes.
This is a performance-based film. There is no
stylization in shot-taking. The actors had to be themselves, with gut-reactions
to impromptu actions sometimes. Nothing was easy. Sometimes, there would be 25
takes. At other times, the first take would be fine.
I got intelligent, instinctive actors. They had the
rawness in their eyes. That came out perfectly in the Close Ups.
Q. How did you come to decide the look of the film?
A. I had already shot two HBO documentaries with the
same producer and DP. They knew my intent and style. For Playground, there
would be no stylized lighting or movement. We wanted to teleport the potential
audience there. We wanted to make it look real.
There are some other critical comments on violence if
we look at the contemporary serious cinema. But, most of the things happen
outside the frame, in those films. We did not want that. We did not take on
violence in any metaphorical way. We wanted to show it, without glamour, on the
screen.
Q. Question for the EP – When the script came to you,
how did the production and creative logic conflict work out? How did you handle
that?
A. It was an easy-going approach as our working
relation was already two films old. We made two documentaries for the HBO prior
to Playground.
From the production side, we chose not to interfere
with the Director’s intent and execution. This was a completely new subject. No
film on such a subject has ever been made in Poland.
The film has had a theatrical release in Poland and in
Spain. It has had a god festival run too. Everywhere the reaction has been
pretty much the same.
Some people have thoroughly rejected the film.
Specially older people refused to believe that such a thing could happen.
Q. What is the contemporary filmmaking situation in
Poland?
A. After the 60s and 70s, Poland went through some
kind of intellectual and cultural drought. However, in the last few years,
things have changed drastically. A film like Szumowska’s Body (2015) could be
made in today’s Poland. That was unthinkable even a few years ago.
I could think of making Playground, a thoroughly
research-based serious film, because of this change in culture.
Q. When you showed the three teenagers before the
strike, you showed them from high angle Close Up. During the violence, the
camera comes down to low angle. Did you consciously comment on the eyes of the
authority looking down on them when you took the camera higher in the
beginning?
A. Yes and no. Sometimes it was conscious. At other
times, the cameraman’s hands were fatigued. You see, it is not always a
conscious power position to be sustained. You do not see the reality from the
same angle all the time.
Q. Do you feel that the return to a communist
socialist system might ease out the general discontent and erase some violence
in the air?
A. No. We have had enough of that experiment. We do
not want that back. I do not know what could end such nonsensical violence. In many
other films, there is a reason behind violence. Broken, malfunctioning
families, poverty, revenge situations. But, in Playground, the violence erupts
without any provocation. There is no reason behind such an eruption. That
struck me. I wanted to know how that violence instinct or culture works. I put
up a lot of questions. But, the answers are not there.
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