(Romania, 82 min.)
Written and directed by Adrian Sitaru
Starring: Adrian Titieni, Sergiu Costache, Gheorghe Ifrim,
Clara Voda
When I’m an Old Communist Hag screened in Ottawa at the European Union Film Festival last
November, it felt as if local film buffs were being treated to a one-time
glimpse at the hidden funny bone of Romanian cinema. Romania’s DiverCiné
selection Domestic, however, suggests
that the Romanians have gone two for two when it comes to making comedy. Yes,
that ever-popular national cinema so frequently populated with long takes, traumatic
abortions, exorcisms, and lesbian nuns (sometimes all in the same film!), actually
does comedy pretty darn well. Who knew? Perhaps it’s a question of what kind of
film generally gets exposure on the festival circuit, but Wednesday’s screening
of Domestic is one that fans riding
the Wave won’t want to miss.
The black comedy of Domestic might be of the love-it-or-leave-it variety, yet there’s no denying the droll and subtle ingenuity of this film by writer/director Adrian Sitaru. It’s an extremely simple film—two acts and a framing device—that tells of three families living in one modest apartment. The family members are all pet people, and the threads of a plot Sitaru strings through the film introduce some quirky animals that inject a dose of surrealism to the banality of the domestic setting.
A dog, for example, wreaks havoc on a building, yet finds a
friend in Toni (Sergiu Costache), who seems like the protagonist of the film
given the dynamic point-of-view long take that introduces the building and its
inhabitants from his perspective. A funny bunny in another of the building’s
units introduces a droll debate whether animals are pets or meat. Michael
Moore, eat your heart out.
The peculiar simplicity of Domestic, however, draws the fine line between people and animals.
The animals of Domestic certainly
have a personality with their googly eyes and their chipper spirits, but the
humour and emotion that erupts sparingly throughout the film is distinctly
human. Sitaru underscores the difference between man and beast with the quaint
binary halves of the film’s structure. The first half, which is entitled
“Domestic Death,” gives the full lesson between two cuts.
The building’s superintendent, Lazhar (Adrian Titieni),
brings home a chicken for dinner. It’s a live one, not one of those fancy
rotisserie ones from the deli, and his inquisitive daughter, Mara (Ariadna
Titieni) asks what’s to be done with the hen. Lazhar, his wife (Clara Voda),
and Mara squabble back and forth in a hilarious bit of domestic clucking that
Sitaru captures within one static long take that lasts for over ten minutes.
It’s hilarious to watch life play itself out with such realistic absurdity. The
back-and-forth between the parents—neither of whom wants to kill the hen—is
interrupted by the chirps of their daughter, who oscillates between
enthusiastic blood lust and bashful guardianship of the hen. The young girl, in
these ten minutes, goes from seeing the hen as something fun and cuddly to
seeing it as something that must be butchered simply as a fact of the food
chain.
Domestic, however,
explodes the humour of the situation by seeing Mara put a violent end to the
debate over who should kill the chicken as she finishes the bird with a splash
of Michael Haneke-grade violence. The splatter of blood that colours the
bathroom (she kills the hen in the tub) marks the effectiveness of the long
take in capturing this funny domestic episode. While the direction of Domestic could lead one to liken the
film to a play, Sitaru consistently offers a comical interplay between
foreground and background. Life plays itself out with seeming normalcy at the
front of the frame, but it becomes increasingly absurd as the one’s focal point
moves back in the frame. Silly squabbles between the parents continue as the
chicken’s blood drips from the backsplash, as do visits from the neighbours
from whom this horrific interruption of domestic nicety must be hidden.
More long takes pepper the next section, as do more
anecdotes about the bond between people and their pets, which can be just as
strong as the bond between two humans. A wayward cat, a missing child, and a
hilariously tacky horse painting all come together for an amusing, yet
relatable, bit of quirky chaos. Death continues to loom large over the film’s
second act, “Domestic Life,” which returns the film to the opening funeral
scene with which it began. The film reframes the viewers’ perspective on the
strange fleetingness of life by taking a person that seems so vibrant and full
of life in one lengthy take can be struck down by death’s kiss in the cut
between two shots. The funeral scene, though, assumes an air of the uncanny as
it becomes a dream-place for Toni, although it’s hard to tell where life ends
and fantasy begins.
Sitaru uses the minimalist aesthetic to great effect, for
the funereal framing device underscores the tangible realism of the surrounding
scenes of domesticity. There’s a great slice of life effect to Domestic that gives the sense of being a
fly on the wall in the units of this small Romanian apartment. A layered
soundtrack gives Domestic the air of
an Altman film as the camera trolls through the building with uninterrupted
vision and picks up snippets of dialogue from various residents. There’s a
sense of being in the room and a thrill of being a part of the crowd or, better
yet, of playing the role of a distant observer looking through a secret window.
Domestic is strangely familiar, but it’s
strange enough to provide an escape.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Domestic screens in Ottawa at The ByTowne on Wednesday, March 12 at
9:10 pm.
