I am a white Germanic nazi! Or am I? In PLAY, a Swedish film I watched yesterday, I started to root for the white kids, who were conned by a group of 5 black kids. No, not only conned, they were … tortured. Or were these just the games boys play “normally”. What is normal after all?
I just remember that when I stayed in Kista near Stockholm, I got intimidated by the mere presence of immigrant (or better: blatantly non-swedish, non-blonde, non-white) gangs. Or were they gangs at all? Were they just behaving “immigrantly”? Is there such a thing?
Am I a racist when I deliberately decide to sit at the table of the two black guys? Or would I be if I didn’t?
See? After this film you start asking yourself questions like that … the weird games the camera plays with us don’t help either. They make you see things that are very different from what you think you’re seeing. A weird play on our visual convictions. What about our social or ethical ones?
Normally I’d label a film like that “ATTENTION: boring artsy movie”. Not this time. Sit there. Have patience. Follow the camera into a position in time and space where things unfold within and without eyesight and earshot. Sit it out. And don’t try to work afterwards – there’ll just be too many (uncomfortable) questions in your mind …. (why do you think I’m blogging this only today? I really had to sleep on what the heck I should be thinking ;))
I just remember that when I stayed in Kista near Stockholm, I got intimidated by the mere presence of immigrant (or better: blatantly non-swedish, non-blonde, non-white) gangs. Or were they gangs at all? Were they just behaving “immigrantly”? Is there such a thing?
Am I a racist when I deliberately decide to sit at the table of the two black guys? Or would I be if I didn’t?
See? After this film you start asking yourself questions like that … the weird games the camera plays with us don’t help either. They make you see things that are very different from what you think you’re seeing. A weird play on our visual convictions. What about our social or ethical ones?
Normally I’d label a film like that “ATTENTION: boring artsy movie”. Not this time. Sit there. Have patience. Follow the camera into a position in time and space where things unfold within and without eyesight and earshot. Sit it out. And don’t try to work afterwards – there’ll just be too many (uncomfortable) questions in your mind …. (why do you think I’m blogging this only today? I really had to sleep on what the heck I should be thinking ;))
Be the first to comment