Disrupted Surroundings
The 2021 Locarno Film Festival Explores Conflict, Human Dignity, and Artistic Expression
The Locarno Film Festival, held in Switzerland, recently concluded with a focus on themes of conflict, human dignity, and artistic expression. The festival's artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro, aimed to confront humanitarian crises, war, forced migrations, and societal collapse by emphasizing dark, subversive humor and comedy as a civilized response to global distress.
Six out of 17 films in the main competition were comedies, blending tragic themes with ironic and anarchic humor to create a nuanced dialogue about suffering and resilience. Notable among these was the inclusion of Jackie Chan, celebrated for his ability to fuse comedy, action, and emotion across decades, highlighting the power of artistic expression to engage and entertain even amid serious themes.
Key thematic focuses included conflict areas and humanitarian crises, human dignity and survival, and artistic expression through humor and dark satire. Films touched on ongoing real-world places of turmoil such as Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Iran, acknowledging the harsh realities without surrendering to despair.
One such film was "With Hassan in Gaza" by Kamal Aljafari, which was included in the competition and featured amateur footage of scorched earth, exploring sympathy for Palestine and Palestinians. Another film, "The Hermit" by Ivana Mladenović, is a sharp satire about her second home, Romania, which briefly flourished upon joining the EU but soon felt like a forgotten backwater.
The festival also showcased films that exemplify art triumphing over everything else. "The Seasons" by Moraine Frazão, portrays Alentejo, a rural region in southern Portugal, as an oasis of beauty, and is an archaeological film exploring the landscape, voices, and gestures of the inhabitants of Alentejo. Another film, "The Seasons" from Portugal, is stunningly shot, filled with philosophical poetry, and concise, with a runtime of 82 minutes.
The Georgian-German film "Dry Leaf" by Alexander Koberidze, with an extreme runtime of 3 hours 6 minutes, follows a father's search for his missing daughter who was photographing rural football stadiums and pitches for an art project. The film uses dry leaves as a metaphor for unpredictable shots, like our heroes, creating a hypnotic effect in long pans of landscapes, a style reminiscent of the director's previous work.
The Lebanese film "Tales of the Wounded Land" by Abbas Fahdel is also part of the competition, focusing on human dignity and solidarity in harsh conditions. The film "On Arto's Land" by Tamar Stepanyan was shown at the festival opening, featuring a Frenchwoman's journey to Armenian Gyumri and involving her in an illegal drone transport adventure. The film stars Camille Cottin and Denis Lavant, with Lavant's character's madness convincingly portrayed.
In summary, the 2021 Locarno Film Festival used a combination of comedy, drama, and dark social critique to probe how cinema can address the hardships posed by global conflicts while affirming human dignity and the vital role of artistic expression.
Movies-and-tv served as a platform for exploring global conflicts, humanitarian crises, and the role of artistic expression, with six comedies in the main competition tackling tragic themes with irony and dark humor. The entertainment industry was harnessed to engage audiences in discussions about suffering and resilience, with films acknowledging real-world conflicts in regions such as Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Iran.
