Transnistra at Antenna Documentary Film Fest
Transnistra is playing at this years at Antenna Documentary Film Festival in Sydney. We sent Addy Fong along to check it out:
Shifting through seasons in beautifully shot 16mm, Anna Eborn’s Transnistra is an observational documentary that centres around a group of Transnistrian youths as they navigate the ever-changing world of friendship, love and heartbreak.
The film opens with a group of teens skimming stones across water and the opening line of ‘did you figure out if you love me?’ is uttered in the film’s first moments. These romantic notions echo throughout, making the film feel comforting and familiar, quickly opening up to such an intimate moment audiences end up forgetting they’re watching a documentary and quickly become immersed in their world.
Transnistra, located between the river Dniester and Ukraine territory and recognised by the UN as part of Moldova, is a country deadlocked in unresolved conflict that can arise at any moment. Eborn’s choice to document a group of Transnistrian adolescents and film using primarily hand-held shots becomes a metaphor of the uncertainty Transnistria faces. Prior to writing this and watching the film I had no idea where Transnistra was located and the situation the country faced. For Eborn to get access and film the teenagers is simply amazing.
In what seems to be an abandoned city and a riverbank that has escaped the test of time, teens bask in the dappled sunlight and swim carelessly in the river, playing through the ruins in what seems a forgotten place, trapped in time. Tolya, Sasha, Denis, Burulya, Dima and Tanya all exchange words throughout regarding love, self-harm and intimacy, speaking about the topic in such casual manner.
Tanya, the only female in the group, becomes almost the leader of the pack having the boys vie for her affections and treating them casually through the differing conversations she has with them individually. At home however, Tanya’s mother requests that she will be able cook and be married soon, a social expectation that marriage will provide security to her daughter.
Despite Tanya’s free spirit and strong will, navigating adolescence as a female in a group full of men becomes a cause for uncertainty as Eborn’s film showcases intimate moments such as Tanya popping the pimples off a boy’s back and pairs it with comments like, ‘She has no fucking heart. Tolya, has she ever had a heart?’ Paired with the casual mention of scars possibly caused by self harm, Tanya answers vaguely, ‘from a distant past’ avoiding the topic. A scene of a boy playing in a crumbled building has Tanya heard off-screen saying, ‘you’re not my boyfriend. I don’t want to be touched.’ If indeed something happened to warrant dialogue in which Tanya did not consent to physical contact there is a concern about the danger she is in as the only female in a group of men.
Occurrences and happenings are mentioned afterwards in conversation and are almost missed if you don’t spot them, a ring on Tanya’s left hand to signify that she is now married, she utters ‘we already slept together’ skimming over what would be significant moments in life.
Travelling by train though the Transnistrian landscape which is now covered in snow, Tanya looks dreamily out the window, drawing a heart and writing the word love in the fogged up glass. Paired with soft melancholic music this makes for a beautiful scene that makes Transnistra well worth the watch.
Transnistra plays again on 27th October. Details here.
