Bucharestless (2011)
is less a city symphony than a free-flowing jazz session, circling round the
Romanian capital, picking elements here and there to build a kaleidoscopic
picture of those everyday details that caught the filmmakers’ eyes. Directed by George Dorobantu, the 93 minutes
show aspects of Bucharest as organism, parts of which are barely noticed by
those going about their business. Unlike
a chronologically-structured portrait we circle around, returning to scenes showing
that while in some ways the city changes, in others it stays the same.
The title captures various forms
of restlessness: Bucharest is a restless city, subject to changing light,
weather and seasons, never the same from one moment to another. The camera is restless as it pokes around. The inhabitants it gazes at are restless as
well. This is not primarily about people
though; in fact we rarely see faces.
Many of those shown are elderly, shuffling round with shopping bags,
just getting by, but there are opportunities for leisure and play as well, and
green spaces in which to relax. Cats and
stray dogs are plentiful, leading parallel lives.
Elements of architecture are
included, but not primarily the touristy bits nor the new developments. Mostly we see scruffy-looking apartment
blocks, and even the more elegant buildings are often decaying. When new buildings are shown, it is often at
odd angles, or only as abstracts, suggesting an alienated view of the urban
landscape. As significant as the macro
level is the micro level, nature keeping a toehold in an unpromising
environment with ants and beetles flourishing among the detritus humans
discard. The overall shabbiness is a
long way from the tourist board-favoured heritage view of the Paris of the East,
but it is generally a vibrant shabbiness.
The film may seem artless, its
makers merely strolling round with a digital camera, taking random shots and
stitching them together, overlaid with a pleasant musical accompaniment. And no doubt there was much walking about
hoping for interesting things to turn up.
But there is structure (the film is divided into 16 sections though
these are not obvious to the viewer) and some of the shots have been subjected
to processing, moving away from the film as a slice of reality. The result is immersive, a documentary that
gets under the skin of the city, and in a hypnotic way gets under the skin of
the viewer too. But whether an emphasis
on the tiredness of the infrastructure is a fair reflection of reality can only
be judged by Bucharest’s inhabitants.
The film is available through
Cinepub on YouTube:
