The very existence of the Hong Kong International Film Festival
helps to make Hong Kong feel like Asia's World City ;b
Fire of Love (Canada-U.S.A., 2022)
- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Reality Bites program
- Sarah Dosa, director
At the Hong Kong International Film Festival four years ago, I viewed Werner Herzog's volcano documentary, Into the Inferno. Among the volcanologists featured in it were a French couple, Katia and Maurice Krafft who, among other things, were famed for often getting closer to active volcanoes than most others along with their amazing photographs and film footage of the subjects that they were not just passionate but actually damn near obsessive about.
Fire of Love tells their story, with the help of footage they shot -- much of it impressive and mesmerizing -- and interviews they conducted with a number of other people. And although the Hong Kong International Film Festival program booklet doesn't inform people about this, Sarah Dosa's documentary notes early on that this also a story about a couple who are no longer with us: specifically, Katia and Maurice Krafft lost their lives while filming eruptions at Mount Unzen in Japan in 1991.
But rather than dwell on their deaths and turn them into a cautionary tale about daredevils who diced too frequently with death, Fire of Love celebrates their love for each other along with their shared love for volcanoes. It also gives added dimension to the appreciation of their individual personalities and work by pointing out their differences: such as Katia being a detail-oriented biochemist who brought the micro into focus whereas Maurice the geologist tended to be more expansive and, between the two of them, the more willing to take risks.
For the most part, I really only have one major complaint about this documentary -- and I realize that in the grand scheme of things, it really shouldn't be that big a deal. The fact of the matter though is that I really would have preferred that Fire of Love had a different narrator besides Miranda July because hers is the kind of voice that is on the soporific side. Consequently, despite the screening I attended for this film being in the mid afternoon, I found myself feeling like I was being lulled to sleep on a few occasions during the 93 minute offering! And I also can't help but wonder if, with a brighter sounding narrator, this documentary effort would have felt less workmanlike and more, well, exciting and inspiring.
My rating for the film: 6.0
Olga (Switzerland-France-Ukraine, 2021)
- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Global Vision program
- Elie Grappe, director and co-scriptwriter (with Raphaelle Desplechin)
- Starring: Anastasiia Budiashkina, Sabrina Rubtsova, Tanya Mikhina
The titular heroine of this dramatic offering is a 15 year old gymnast (played by Anastasiia Budiashkina) obsessed with her sport and her ambition to compete in the European Championships. Despite the best efforts of her journalist mother, Ilona (portrayed by Tanya Mikhina), she's as apolitical as you'd imagine a regular sports obsessed teenager to be. But, what with their being Ukrainians, politics is not something that they can ignore -- with it introducing into their personal lives and the personal and the political ending up being interwoven and well nigh inseparable.
After an attempt is made on Ilona's life that also puts her beloved daughter's life in danger, Ilona sends Olga away to safety in the form of Switzerland, the home country of her father, who died when she was young (and whose father -- Olga's grandfather -- has not forgiven Ilona for this happening). There, Olga signs away her Ukrainian citizenship and officially becomes Swiss. She also joins the Swiss national gymnastics team but, even while she may act like she is above all a gymnast, the ties to Ukraine stay strong -- and not just because of Ilona either.
While Olga is in Switzerland, the Maidan Revolution (about which there's a powerful film, Winter on Fire) breaks out. Ilona gets caught up in it; and so, too, does Olga's best friend and captain of the Ukrainian women's gymnastics team, Sasha (Sabrina Rubtsova). And while Olga is a fictional work, director Elia Grappe incorporated real life footage of the Maidan Revolution, including ones showing violent attacks by the authorities on the protestors and journalists present there to jam home what Ukranians have been fighting for, and have been doing for a number of years now.
Those scenes which take place in Ukraine are painful to view but no less agonizing are those involving Olga in Switzerland. The loneliness of the exile and the difficulties trying to incorporate into another society (even one where one can speak at least one of its native languages, albeit not like a native) are shown very clearly and well. Ditto the yearning to go home and join the fight even while others implore you not to do so. Also, do not underestimate the excruciating frustration of having one's country's struggles being dismissed by foreigners who think they know what's actually going on and better. This perhaps particularly so if those foreigners also happen to be older relatives.
On a personal note: I wonder if I'd have been less sympathetic and understanding of Olga's outwardly stoic character and behavior before June 2019. Now I see Olga and recognize that a number of its characters exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); a condition that many Hong Kongers and Ukranians sadly know all too well.
My rating for this film: 7.0
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