Mindful Astoria

Bosnian Herzegovinian Fim Festival

Reviews written by Simeon:
Simeón's Thoughts on the Films

Recently, I was given a rare and wonderful opportunity to see the films Nebojša Slijepčević’s The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, and Maja Novaković’s At the Door of the House, Who Will Come Knocking. The two films, a short narrative film and a full-length documentary, respectively, are not only well-made, well-paired, and mainly composed of jarring silence, but are both meditations containing a harsh, sobering sense of purpose, with subject material and an urgency in their direction that glare back at the audience. Being meditations, they are also easy to meet, disarming in simplicity on the surface, but deep, like calm pools.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Oscar Nominated film) is a thirteen minute long short film which packs a much longer sequence of tension inside its frame. The camera, which floats eerily through claustrophobic train compartments and passengers’ wracked expressions, moves in a single take as a nameless paramilitary unit begins removing people from a stopped train, a place that is somewhere between familiarities, or a familiar place and an unknown one. There is danger being caught in the in-between. This in-between place is where people are suddenly pounced on. The story is brief but as it plays I am frozen, wondering when - When! - will silence finally be refuted, how such a breaking and conviction will be received, and, am I paying attention? What details of each life are being considered, what details demanded, to determine who will stay and who will be called out? Who is allowing this breach to open and flood the rest of this horrific true story, where the lighting, noises, colors and shadows stay true to the world that I also see and use? Forget jurisprudence, will one who is comfortable remain upright for the vulnerable? Would I? Slijepčević’s directorial voice can be visualized somewhere between the dust motes and wiggling cigarette smoke, so hushed and delicate, I can imagine him saying, “If you feel like you are too close to this, remember I have been in the middle of it. My eyes have been saved by someone else who didn’t blink, my hands saved by someone who neither flinched nor hesitated.”

At the Door of the House, Who Will Come Knocking is a remarkable documentary of contemplation, weaving ethereal moments of natural history and observation with a strikingly open view of a man making a difficult living and living so alone, save the company of several domestic animals and what little warmth can be bled from a montane existence. Humility and stillness, alienation and connection, and other dialectic notes are all together in a piece that is likely the first time I have seen creative nonfiction in the film format. It is not a piece ‘based on a true story.’ We are enfolded into a man’s life, ignorant of linearity, for an unspecified amount of time, but mostly during the harsh winter of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and of the man’s discontent. In this solitary environment, there is little room for joy between stiffening bones and the iron ghost weights of tragedy. Maja Novaković joins the man in his element, firmly planting her feet and tripod next to him, whether this be in the snow-covered woods, the impenetrable dark-cold nights, the muddy paths, or the verdant hillsides, camera as convicted of its responsibility as she is to honest, boundary-eating storytelling. Through her lens, this man does not reach out to us like he does in vain with his neighbors. There is still a gleaming faith in his eyes that his life will not be so lonely with audiences joining him at his home and the scenes of his beautiful countryside. The words of the title give us the first glimpse of a simple wish Novaković prays will inspire us to action: Go and be the witness of your lonely neighbors’ lives. Friends (and strangers) around me live in this silence to varying degrees. Novaković calls us to pierce that bubble. Knock and make room.

These are pieces of witness. One is to the specter of atrocities and the courage that is required to fill us when we harmonize our frightful awareness with the wisdom that ‘I am the shelter for my kin.’ The other is dedicated to dignity within (and The Othering without) our elders, particularly those in pastoral communities, their personal griefs, the daily-resurrected shades of histories, and their solitude who pass the wild seasons as a horse might in its fold. The former is the most recent champion at the Cannes Film Festival, taking the Short Film Palme d'Or, while the latter is making its New York City premiere.

For myself, a fairly aware student of life and its chronic discomforts, an artist, family and friend of diasporas everywhere, it is a great honor to have had the chance to see these works of art before they feature at the BHFF in NYC, and to bring anyone my thoughts on them. I hope you’ll consider going to the program on Friday, April 25 and sit with the message - yes, it must be repeated often and more in these times - Do more for others than you do for yourself.

Teachers: Manaslu and Carl. Read more about our teaching team at www.mindfulastoria.com's Teachers page.

SUPPORTING MINDFUL ASTORIA

We deeply appreciate your financial support of Mindful Astoria. For this retreat, we recommend whichever of these contribution levels is best for you:

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