Fairytale at Antenna Documentary Film Festival
Fairytale from master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov is playing at Antenna Documentary Film Festival in Sydney. Addy Fong checks it out:
The medium of documentary is often composed of standardised interview and cutaways, with the incorporation of historical dates and verifiable facts we often take as truth. Observational narration, eye-witness accounts, and archival footage all add to the believability that the documentary form is seemingly removed from bias or influence. Alexander Sokurov’s experimental documentary Fairytale, however, presents a tale which questions one’s understanding of documentary as truth by incorporating significant historical figures into a newly imagined context, juxtaposing them together in a speculative piece, in order to create new meanings which can be both controversial and confrontational.
Opening with a seemingly Biblical quote, ‘you strangled Satan, passion bearer, with the godly strings of your suffering’, Sokurov isn’t afraid to present viewers with themes of suffering, war, and pain, all of which you could argue in a way, are what makes us human, the eternal struggle of pain part of human existence. Controversial and seemingly offensive, Fairytale showcases this manufactured representation of Jesus Christ, laid suffering in a crypt in a vulnerable state that seems to reference Christ’s undertaking of world’s suffering or sin, in biblical terms, whilst world leaders like Hitler who have performed heinous acts appear to mock him. Here Sokurov scripts a vulnerable Jesus who utters to his oppressors, ‘I haven’t died and I never will…’ and ‘it hurts, everything hurts but I remember everything’, dialogue which seems to indicate that perhaps being human relates to the continual struggle with suffering or pain, related to past mistakes or wrong-doings. The onscreen visualisation of Christ, an aspect many religious groups may find offence with, is presented in a speculative manner where men such as Hitler, Stalin, and Churchill wander purgatory discussing reasons as to why they deserve forgiveness and a place in ‘paradise’. Christ is presented as innocent and easily manipulated by those evil and in power, ‘Him, Christ, he’s young and kind…he could come in useful for us.’
A character utters, ’Everything will be forgotten and it will start over’, a statement which seems to interpret forgiveness in a sense is the forgetting of past wrongs. For those struggling with injustice at the hands of cruel men, however, the pardoning of wrongdoings seems simply unfair. For many a generalised conclusion could be that such men who partook in evil acts do not deserve the reward of heaven and should be condemned to an eternity of suffering. This said, introspective reflection and the consideration of forgiveness to those who have wronged us seems to be what Sokurov presents to his viewers, a subject matter highly controversial but something to consider nonetheless. Sokurov presents us with this philosophical dilemma of whether God exists amidst human suffering and pain, whether God is still in control of the world he’s created and cares for, or simply put, his distance means that he has given up on caring about humanity.
Fairytale incorporates significant archival footage and re-edits this in order to create new meanings on historical events, perhaps intentionally tainting and causing mockery of war and religion in order to offend, or perhaps providing a alternate perspective we should not be afraid to confront. The truth of the matter is that for many perhaps the existence of God, or the restoration of biblical justice is only seen or acknowledged when good exists within the world. For myself and others of religious faith, the certainty of biblical justice and God’s omnipotent presence is presented as a comforting hope, that men deemed evil and of great influence, will eventually come to their demise when good will prevail. After all, Sokurov film is titled, ‘Fairytale’ and fairytales often conclude on a happy note.
Like many biblical epics, God’s omnipotent presence is characterised by the weather, a dark foreboding cloud that seems to linger nearby, and when unseen seemingly heard through the film classical score and overestimating sounds. In a sense the camera seems to act similarly, as the hesitant observer, lingering shots, unsteady and occasionally cutting to closeup, the frames feel almost meditative and rest uncomfortably on the unspoken silences that fall within the frame.
The film is interesting, both visually and thematically, exploring a new perspective of documentary storytelling as Sokurov uses pre-existing documentary, news and archival footage, animation, and voice actors to create an expressionistic art piece that though the film’s use of black and white feels oddly dreamlike and as if from distant memory. Glimpes of colour appear in the film but these moments are fleeting. Fairytale not only evokes notions of memory and recollections of the past through the use of black and white, the added visual noise creates a charcoal like texture in the film’s frames and Sokurov’s exploration of the uncertainty visually represented amongst shades of grey that sit within black and white, the uncertainty of the story and struggle with truth.
For those however, who find existential dilemmas involving religion, war, and suffering uninteresting or difficult to comprehend, Fairytale is a film whose novelty and visual style can wear out quickly. Whilst watching, I found that a lot of concentration was needed to try and understand Sokurov’s intention as a filmmaker in creating this work, much of which I drew from my own personal understanding from my Christian faith in my interpretation of this speculative piece. Biblical references are scattered throughout, an example being the biblical floods of which God set to destroy the evil on earth as a sort of reset, but for non-religious viewers a documentary which consists of men walking around purgatory discussing their previous lives on earth and why they deserve forgiveness and a place in heaven can easily tire those uninterested.
It is easy to discount the existence of God or good in the world when going through struggles, in the film Hitler states, ‘My struggle proves there is no God’. Men often come to their own conclusion that God would not allow suffering to exist and choose to be in control of their own fate, ‘No master here, there is no master.’ Man’s ability to choose is wonderful but perhaps Sokurov’s Fairytale warns us that although this exists, clashes in perspective will occur and cause conflict. This is shown through the film’s presentation of leaders Stalin and Churchill who held opposing views, and seen in the discussion of communism in the film where characters state, ‘Best Christians are communists’ and later on ‘Communists are unrefined men.’ This possibly controversial pairing, where Sokurov seems to state that Christianity, stereotypically seem as a mainstream Westernised ideology and belief system, is both unrefined and common, a possible insult to countries whose Christian majority live within highly capitalist societies and of which this film could have been screened.
Alexander Sokurov’s experimental documentary Fairytale sits on the uncomfortable truth of uncertainty, it’s interesting to watch if you allow your mind to wonder in and out of streams of attentiveness, and ponder about what exactly makes us human.
Review by Addy Fong.
Antenna Documentary Film Festival is currently taking place. For details of the remaining screening of Fairytale on October 22nd, go here.
