Of all the films with Ukrainian accents shown at the festival in Gdynia, and there are a lot of them this year, this one definitely seems to be the most interesting, because Damian Kocur universalizes the problem, not just reports it.
No wonder then “Under the Volcano” has already been shown in the official selection of the prestigious festival in Toronto, where the film received very good reviews, and also qualified for the main competition of the London Film Festival. Moreover, he will represent our country in next year’s Oscar race and I suspect the list will not end there.
Kocur, together with the film’s co-writer, Marta Konarzewska, present the war in Ukraine differently than most documentaries or feature creators. We are watching a Ukrainian patchwork family. Nothing special, middle class. They can afford a vacation to the Canary Islands, small luxuries, and the idea is for Roman’s children to try to make friends with their stepmother. It’s going slowly, but everyone is trying their best.
The first scenes of the film announce the ironic social cinema of Ruben Östlund, problems with parking the car, problems with explaining the simplest things served in a brilliant, intelligent sauce. End of holidays, end of summer. The family is getting back together. A little, we feel it from the beginning, as if she was running away from something before. War, the prospect of war with Russia. This news finds them at the airport. What to do? Should I go back to Kiev or to the hotel? Which variant should I choose? They decide to wait it out.
There is no hysteria, no outbursts of anger, at least initially, depression begins. Everyone is good, almost everyone wants well. The process is exactly the same as in Poland, especially in the first months after the invasion. The hotel in Recife tells the family that from now on they do not pay for anything, they are their guests. Yes, good, gratitude, but at the same time, almost silently (and Kocur can sense and photograph it perfectly) the Spanish paradise becomes hell. Because you can’t escape from the war, you can’t escape from all this. The disintegration of all family members begins.
During the hotel breakfast, a family from Russia is sitting opposite Nastia and Roman, which irritates and increases neurosis. Sofia texts and talks to her friend from Kiev, what’s going on there, what’s going on with her family, what’s going on with her loved ones. Subcutaneously, unexplained thoughts begin to appear: why doesn’t Roman fight, doesn’t decide to come back, where will the children go, who will they stay with, Anastasia?
The family’s expedition to the Teide volcano, brilliantly photographed by Nikita Kuzmienko, has a symbolic meaning. The adults are arguing, Fedir is surprised that there is snow on the volcano. Where does the snow on the volcano come from? How do you explain to a kid that it’s ash when Ukraine is ash now? Ash and fear.
In the film, Sofia (Berezowska’s excellent role) is a guide to subsequent worlds – adults, children, teenagers. Ukrainians and foreigners. She establishes contact with an African immigrant, Mike. The boy makes a living by selling bracelets, but he cannot forget about those who are less fortunate than him. They didn’t make it from Africa, they didn’t make it, they died during the journey.
A tomcat, just like in the debut “Bread and Salt”but also in earlier short forms, “It’s still daytime” Whether “What I Want”unifies worlds. By showing the Ukrainian problem, he proves that the problem is global. The end of one will not end the opening of a new war. This hell will never end. Ash from the volcano. This movie is a diamond.
8/10
“Under the Volcano”dir. Damian Kocur, Poland 2024, distributor: TVP, cinema premiere: October 11, 2024.