Ferenc Moldoványi: Another Planet/CPH:DOX 14
We met him years ago, this Hungarian director, who stood behind the much discussed, but great film ”Children of Kosovo”. We, meaning colleague Allan Berg and I, who defended the director’s right to use extremely aesthetical cinematographic means to describe the tragedy in Kosovo.
His focus was the children, as it is in this new film where Moldoványi has filmed in four continents, again with a stunning visual result, where you sometimes end up in a breathless state, at the same time as you look at and listen to the stories from children, who are suffering in their daily life. No commentary, no information about where we are, it is not what I want, the uncompromising director seems to say. I want you to come with me on a tour round this wonderful world, where many children live in total misery. The child soldier, the shoeshine boy, the child prostitute who was raped when she was 8 (!), the girl who sells chewing gum in the street, the scavenger. And so on. They give us their dreams. They give us their daily life. We watch it, feel ashamed, depressed, at the same time as we feel that we must believe that a change could happen. If the energy of these fine children could be transformed into something positive. If…
The title comes from Aldous Huxley: Maybe this world is another planet’s Hell. Moldoványi, one of the most ambitious documentary directors that I know about, has made another unique film.
Hungary, 2008, 95 mins.
http://www.engram.hu/Main.nof?nyelvid=2
