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(BFI London Film Festival, Compartment No. 6, Friday 08 October 2021 18:00, Curzon Mayfair, Screen 1)
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp
"Compartment No. 6"
As a train weaves it's way up to the arctic circle, two strangers share a journey that will change their perspective on life. Laura (Seidi Haarla), a young 'Finnish' woman, escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of 'Murmansk'. Forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a 'Russian' miner, the unexpected encounter leads the occupants of 'Compartment No. 6' to face the truth about their own yearning for human connection.
The film is based on Rosa Liksom's novel, first published in 2010. It's an interesting story, but it’s a book. So the story spreads in many different directions, and for a film adaptation, that creates the question; which direction to take? The final film is more inspired by, rather than based on Rosa Liksom’s novel. The script changes the route, the decade and with that, the country changed from 'The Soviet Union' to 'Russia'. The film changes the age of the male character and his name from Vadim to Ljoha. The film begins with romance, including it's challenges and failings. But then moves in a completely different direction. In a way, the film starts when Laura steps on the train, but the film shows the complicate situation that she's escaping from. It's not about a narrative turn, it’s more about contrast. In the beginning she's disconnected, in the end she's connected. Basically in the beginning she would like to be like Irina (Dinara Drukunova), intellectual, a 'Muscovite'. The hero takes a long train ride to visit some ancient petroglyphs. She quotes a man she meets! To know yourself, you need to know your past. She would like to be an archaeologist who gets fulfilment out of these kind of things, petroglyphs and such. But is she really that person? Or is this just a stolen dream from a person she would like to be. 'Petroglyphs' are enduring marks from the past. Laura thinks that by seeing them she could make contact with something permanent.
In a life that's nothing but a series of vanishing moments, she thinks this could make her feel good. But petroglyphs are just cold stones, you can’t really feel any connection through them. All we've is those fleeting moments, everything that matters is temporary. If we chase something eternal, we might lose what we've now. On the other hand, petroglyphs also represent a fear of death. We don’t want just to vanish forever, we want to be remembered. People make crazy statues and carvings to leave a mark on the world as proof that they existed. On the train she meets Ljoha, an annoying Russian miner who follows her like a shadow. She wants to know her past, and Ljoha is the embodiment of it. It’s unpleasant and banal, but it's what it's. Laura and Ljoha share something deeper than a sexual need. They're more like long-lost siblings. We like to think that they share the same unspoken feelings. It’s more like having the same kind of childhood than same idea of politics or whatever. And during this trip she realizes that she's actually more like Ljoha. Incorrect, clumsy, and lonely. They're connected on an emotional level, but not by sharing cultural touchstones. Laura’s journey speaks to a more universal, all-encompassing kind of love. What Laura and Ljoha experience during this journey, will also leave a deep mark in both of them. The film is interested in that hidden ground that lies behind our public persona.
At the climax of the film these characters are free from these adult roles, they're like kids again, free. Encounters with the ‘Other’ is absolutely one of the main subjects at the heart of this film. Who or even what is he? He's the ‘Other’, but he's also a mirror to Laura’s own image that she tries to avoid. The story is equally about the encounter with the ‘Other’ and diving into your own inner self and attempting to understand and accept who you're. These are not two mutually exclusive themes, because when you meet someone new, there's the opportunity to re-start, to pretend to be something that you would like to be. Or a chance to open up, to learn something new about yourself. There's a certain kind of comfort in strangers. Depending on their gaze and presence of the 'Other', you either start to pretend or you might let go and finally just be yourself. We feel that, or parts of the world, are losing track of as a society. We're losing track on many levels, and this is one of those. This idea of meeting the ‘Other’ and resigning our own pre-determined ideas we've about each other is definitely one key to a better world. It’s no wonder that the theories of the ‘Other’ started to interest the world after the catastrophe of 'WW2' when we were also so strongly divided. The time when we encounter the ‘Other’ is the time when we become most ourselves.
"Compartment No. 6" is an arctic road movie, perhaps it could be seen as a clumsy attempt to find harmony and peace of mind in a world of chaos and anxiety. The core of the story lies in the notion of acceptance. It’s a hard duty to accept that you're part of this chaotic world, and that you exist as you do. Road movies are often about freedom. In a car you can go where you want, every crossroad is a possibility. But we tend to think that freedom isn’t an endless number of options but rather, the ability to accept your limitations. A train ride is more like destiny. You can’t decide where to go, you just have to take what it gives you. It’s easier to deal with your personal emotions when there's certain distance. You go towards something strange, something that's only but a glimmer. It stays a mystery for quite a long time, but when you keep going, you start to find something that resonates in your soul. It’s a really unconscious process. When it’s ready, you might understand what's there that keep you going. 'Nostalgia' is the emotional experience, always momentary, always fragile, of having what you lost or never had, of seeing people you missed seeing, of sipping coffee in the storied cafés that are now hot- yoga studios. It’s the feeling that overcomes you when some minor vanished beauty of the world is momentarily restored.
The film also establishes a different kind of on-screen couple. Audiences are overly conditioned to expect on-screen romance, or some kind of sexual tension. What really interested is the feeling that are beyond sexual tension. Romantic love stories are often too narrow, do they fall in love? If so, when do they have sex? This kind of storytelling is more about abusing the viewers voyeurism, it sells tickets, but is it really interesting. The film is more interested in those complicated feelings behind different kinds of relationships, We've to understand why we feel like we do. If it involves sex, fine, but that’s not the place to set the camera. Some people say it’s the darkness, the coldness of this part of the world. We don’t know. But there are the same dark souls everywhere in the world, and they like to laugh as well.
