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Family dramas bow at Europe on Screen

Carried away: A scene from Borgman, a black comedy of a corrupt priest that ruins family ties

Makbul Mubarak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, May 5, 2014

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Family dramas bow at Europe on Screen

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span class="inline inline-center">Carried away: A scene from Borgman, a black comedy of a corrupt priest that ruins family ties. Courtesy of Europe on Screen

Two family dramas will be screened to the public in Jakarta today at Europe on Screen 2014 as the festival enters its fourth day.

Romanian film Child'€™s Pose tells the story of how a mother is affected psychologically after finding out that her son ran over a child on the highway. The other film being screened is an inventive, genre-defying family film from the Netherlands entitled Borgman. The film sees a family falling apart when a spiritual leader penetrates its household.

While Child'€™s Pose'€™s theme is very straightforward, Borgman meanders.

Child'€™s Pose is a real-time-slice-of-life drama in which Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) receives news that her 30-year-old son Barbu has just run over a kid on the highway.

Despite her troubled relationship with Barbu, Cornelia tries to do whatever she can to help, including meeting with the victim'€™s relatives, facing the scolding that her son is supposed to face.

Interestingly, Cornelia'€™s benevolence gradually changes into obsession. She tries so hard to handle all aspects of her son'€™s case up to the point that Barbu grows angry. Are Cornelia'€™s efforts done out of pure benevolence or obsession?

The strong finale sums up the film'€™s complexity and questions whether a mother'€™s love can be as venomous as it is nourishing.

Child'€™s Pose is a very strong drama, part of the Romanian New Wave, an aesthetic movement in Romania that favors extreme close-ups, long takes and quotidian details to muse on the theme of contemporary social and bureaucratic decay in post-communist Romania.

In the acting department, actress Luminita Gheorghiu delivers the role of Cornelia very convincingly. After her performance in the Romanian New Wave hit The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006),

For its strong theme and story structure, Child'€™s Pose has garnered numerous awards including, The Golden Bear for the Best Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2013.

At the Gopos Awards in its native Romania, the film won Best Feature Film, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Editing.

Meanwhile, Academy Award submitted Borgman touches on the fragmentation of a family upon the arrival of Camiel Borgman, a man who has escaped from a gang of priests who were trying to kill him.

Borgman'€™s director, Alex van Warmerdam, wrap'€™s the film'€™s theme up in a black comedy. The film opens with Borgman, unshaved and dirty, sleeping in an underground dug-out of his own making. He is awoken by a signal that tells him to run away because priests are hunting him down.

There Borgman wanders from house to house until he finds a yard belonging to Marina, who is kind enough to invite him into the home she shares with her husband and children. However, she fails to tell her husband about this.

Warmerdam portrays Borgman as a faithful priest and a man with ill-intentions at the same time. He is seen as a man who is able to move without making a sound.

Borgman'€™s saint characterization, however, is defiled by his evil deeds. Borgman brainwashes the family into going against the father '€” the highest authority in the family.

At this point, Marina'€™s family starts to crumble. She dreams of a monster who is aiming to destroy her every night.

Borgman is a film that requires interpretation. Its humor needs to be translated to generate meaning.

Through Borgman, Warmerdam establishes himself on the frontline of European black comedy.

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