The sole feature from Ukrainian filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi is distressing, but worth it. (Surrounding this, he’s made about a dozen short subjects.) A real misérable story, it follows (and ‘follows’ is the word for his tagalong/long-take film technique) a just-arrived deaf teenage student at his new boarding school. Co-ed, though more boys than girls, the all-deaf institution a horror house for ‘parking’ unwanted kids in a kind of Survivor Academy of little learning and scams on & off campus, organized thru a pecking order of seniority rule. Daringly, Slaboshpytskyi leaves the (Ukrainian?) sign language entirely untranslated (no subtitles/no voice-over, just natural sound) as 16-yr-old Sergei is greeted with a series of rough hazing assaults to put him in his place before he’s even found a dorm spot. Later, he’ll be assigned various low-level jobs to make a few bucks selling crap on trains or pimping girl students at a truck stop. Cash split between him, the girls and the older boys. Sergei will wind up paying for his own session, losing his virginity and his heart. He’s already losing any sense of humanity. (Sex, violence and an edit-free bathroom abortion all Hard-R level.) Everything fascinating and horrifying. As for teaching , a smattering of subjects. We see history and shop; if there’s any literature, the reading matter would likely be LORD OF THE FLIES. Finally pushed too hard, the worm turns in Sergei with grisly finality. No gloss, no answers, certainly no happy ending. Really, no ending at all. Just departure.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: We’re a long way from ZÉRO DE CONDUITE/’33. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/05/complete-jean-vigo-1930-34.html
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