RIFF fourth edition

We consider this film as a good bridge between the more traditional cinema and the movement in dance and audiovisual images. The camera is close to the bodies, and you, as audience, feel that you are in between those bodies in the desert, this is achieved thanks to the good story-telling editing. Eventhough the body expression is natural, without a dance education, the emotion of the characters make them fresh and meaningful. There is a very well directed message to bring life where you can see only destruction and men against men. This short story full of life tells you that no matter the political issues, soldiers are still human beings with the capability to interact with people and feel humanity without the perversions of adverse political affairs.

We appreciate this dance film as quite exquisite in expressive dance theater film, it brings you colorful moving images from the ancient Polish culture that go from celebrations to processions of death. It is amazing how the director uses the camera without movement, but the processions pass in front of the camera with a lot of historical information and quite a lot of body movement by good contemporary dancers. This film is based in a painting of folk culture, and it would be the dream of any painter, bringing their characters to life in a very successful combination of dance, cinema and visual richness.

We admire how the director of this dance film manages to do a pretty strong film with very few audiovisual elements. The dance made in a ritual style is so intense that grabs you to create a world of ideas that provokes you an intimate reflection on life and death, it makes you think of these dreadful abstractions: “life and death”. The camera style surrounding the dance and the almost silent sound which consists only on the shoes over the floor, create the space where the dancer is floating.

This animated film in combination with real dancers has a strong imprint of colorful experimentation images and beautiful dance. Besides this very well managed artistic features, it makes moral reflections by speculating who can win the race, why do they win and how the referees can interpret their skills and faults to make a surprising and unfair or hilarious result. It’s an extreme metaphor of life. The resulting film is a complex and good example of the combination of dance, art, cinema and controversial messages.

This one hour documentary, based on a very interesting dancer and choreographer, makes you feel how art is created because it does not only document the character’s life, but also gets inside Kaory’s art, showing parts of many of her works, having enough time in the film to show you the choreographer’s feelings, and taking you deeply into the development of her art construction.