People Out There Directed by Aik Karapetian / Latvia, 2012 - East of the West Competition

This gloomy suburban drama about idle twenty-year-old Jan, his restless friend Cracker, and their small (and not so small) daily thefts and beatings, convey the highs and lows of this East of the West film parade.

The post-Soviet material and human remains are the backdrop of this story (7 out of 12 films presented in this festival’s section are set in or feature strong references to the socialist era). Our protagonist is a drop-out orphan living with his grandfather - a former USSR scientist - in a depressed Soviet tower-block area.

Jan’s longs for a wealthy future but lacks the endurance and moral strength to gain it in socially accepted forms. No wonder he and his friend embark on a doomed criminal trip. Coming-of-age, broken family ties and strong – but often wicked – friendships are the usual themes.

A highly naturalistic mise-en-scene is present, consisting of hand-held documentary-like camera and cold realistic lighting and photography. There is, however, not much space for visual inventions or experiments, besides the common out-of-focus suburban backgrounds, some continuity shots and some aerial views of the post-Soviet outskirts, which are quite striking for their geometric stillness.

A little twist in the story comes as a surprise: the random encounter of the protagonist with a Christian group lead by a charismatic scholar. This unexpected narrative line (and the powerful scene where Jan is driven by the the religious leader onto a theatre stage dominated by a gigantic lit cross) proves that there is some originality in depicting the range of social consequences in the twilight of socialism. Not only is religion back, but like the new goods at the supermarket, you can now pick from a wide variety of versions. This represents a good point of view on the Westernization of the East.

Besides representing the harsh, disconnected and often violent happenings of the post-soviet period, why can’t new Eastern realistic cinema also struggle for some additional perspective in storytelling? Either this new cinema will be able to follow such a path or it won’t be able to fulfil its most relevant task of showing the directions our world is heading in.

By Sebastiano Pucciarelli