Writer/director Ivan Ostrochovský’s award-winner looks back in anger and sorrow at the hemorrhaging barriers between Church and State in Communist Yugoslavia, circa 1980. The situations & current crisis (a liberal priest instructor dead under unexplained circumstances) seen mostly, but not exclusively, thru the eyes of two 20-something seminarians who ought to be conjugating their theological ABCs. (Twelve years after the ‘velvet revolution’ was brutally ended, it feels as if the country has regressed a decade or two.) Filmed in squarish b&w Academy Ratio, you may initially be reminded of Pawel Pawlikowski’s superb IDA/’13, but this film never hits the same level of technical control. In his second feature, Ostrochovský’ goes for the long slow boil and sometimes lets the flame go out altogether as religious elders on staff try to justify moral compromises between religious and secular authorities just to keep the order from closing down entirely. A dilemma that has them attempting to enlist students as informers to help find out who’s coordinating the circulation of banned books or instigating a hunger strike. But Ostrochovský lets too many pivotal moments slip by in an unvaried atmosphere of discontent. One priest goes so far as to break his confessional vows of silence. A real shock when he tells us, but did we see it happen? Beautifully shot, austere in design, and well acted, the relationship between the two friends as they start to keep secrets from each other (both in their film debut) very compelling. But it's easy to imagine this being more effective with another film or two under Ostrochovský’s belt.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, IDA. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/11/ida-2013.html
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