IFFK'08:Ferenc Moldovanyi's Documentary Another Planet review
A documentary on a few stories around the world, of children and teenagers making a living at the bottom rungs of the economic and social ladder. It is bloody real, and gut-wrenching. Shot in Mexico, Congo, Ecuador and Cambodia.
It starts with an old native American man sitting by a wood fire at night. He says he believes in his ancestors, in his forefathers and his foremothers. And he believes in the creator. He speaks of the 'White man', and Jesus. Jesus the creator. Or maybe Jesus the concept forced on his people. Then to a teenaged girl. Her mother tells her not go near large water bodies. You'll lose your soul there, she says. It can easily be thought of as blind superstition. Somehow, it also comes across as this serene respect and fear of nature. This wisdom that man is but another animal and has his etched out boundaries. Beautiful colors of photography. Steadycam takes you through calm woods. But the music disturbs you, rising slowly. This girl recalls a dream. She was running. Running away with her little brother because the earth was on fire. Fire was coming out of the ground. And then Jesus told her to keep running. And she'd find a resting place where there'd be no fire. In her dream, she finds it.
A Mexican girl who sells cigarettes on the street and gets beaten by her mother every night doesn't find the resting place without fire. She doesn't go to school, cooks for her brothers, cleans up, and works. Her pain brought close by some stunning telephoto shots. Tibor Mathe's photography is powerful and painful and gruesome and then steps over some cliff to fall into beauty. The film makes this journey a little slower. Halting to cry.
A little African boy making a living from doing these odd small jobs for people. His landscape is difficult to describe. In markets covered with dirt, he works everyday. He speaks while moving in a train. He was thrown out after his mother died because they thought he did witchcraft. Elder boys take away his money and toys. He washes dishes at small stalls or anything else for a little money. Then a teenaged prostitute who started at the age of eight. The first time was involuntary. They fed her vallium pills. An American raped her and gave her friend 500 dollars. Now she is a regular. When people ask her for an ID card, she shows them a condom. The other day four policemen pulled her into the jeep and raped her.
A little girl in cambodia. She is maybe five. She works as a scavenger, collecting garbage from huge dumps and selling them. She runs her family. She makes a little money at the end of the day and buys rice for her mother and little brothers. She is strong, I could see. Very strong. She decides to visit her friend's mother in hospital with the friend. They will walk, she says. Earn some money, buy flowers, and walk. For a parent who is sick. To greet her and give her some flowers. She cries. A teenaged boy in Congo with a rifle. He is in the army. Some army. Some nation. His family is dead and gone. He doesn't like the killings and the rapes.
Somewhere in between comes a little boy, again about five. He shines shoes. I can't remember anymore. Moldovanyi called the film Another Planet. His camera is this wide helpless window. It is a window most would like to shut. Some would open it wider and cry. Some would just watch. Some would just watch earth burn.
Another Planet
Dir: Ferenc Moldovanyi
Masik Bolygo
Hungary/2008/35mm/Colour/97’/Spanish, Cambodian
