Stockholm Film Festival

On the eve of her wedding, Veronas is attacked by wolves. When the ten year old Goran saves her, she promises him her newly born daughter. Ten years later, a circus comes to town, and with it civilisation and ruin.

This theme of ruin is obviously a favourite of director Juraj Jakubisko. ”An Ambiguous Report About The End of the World” can be seen both as a depiction of the destruction of an isolated mountain village when it comes in contact with civilisation and as an allegory for the approaching turn of the century. Having grown up in an isolated village, Jakubisko is well aware of how traditions and customs that have been around for hundreds of years can be changed or swept aside after coming in contact with modern day technology - motorcycles, electrical power and cultivation techniques. As part of the new wave of Czech film, Jakubisko works in the same tradition as Milos Forman and Jirí Menzel, but has with”An Ambiguous Report About The End of the World” abandoned purely realistic film to instead tell a cock-and-bull tale with supernatural elements.
Houses sink into the ground, children die of disease, crops go up in flames. It isn't surprising that the villagers wonder what it is that they've done to be punished so severely by God. Whatever sins they may have committed, the situation deteriorates with every attempt to set things right.
Despite the fact that all the disasters can be explained rationally - earthquakes, epidemics, police attacks - the atmosphere remains heavily apocalyptical. Both the wolves' attack at the start of the film, and the helicopter attack at the the end are on a par with the famous helicopter attack in ”Apocalypse Now”, only on a smaller scale.
Despite the gloomy theme, the film is not simply two-and-a-half hours of misery. The villagers seek solace in Nostradamus' promise that after the catastrophe has passed, a thousand years of happiness and children will follow. It is the children who, when the destruction has ceased,will remain in the village and begin anew.
That Juraj Jakubisko manages to successfully tie together all the sudden jumps and twists in An Ambiguous Report About The End of the World , and keep his felliniesque collection of characters in check without losing his concentration, is testimony to his cinematic skill, and deserves every praise.
Jakob Abrahamsson

Premiärstatus

Nordisk premiär

Orig. titel

Nrjasná Zpráva o Konci Sveta

Medverkande

Deana Horváthová,
Milan Bahul, Joachim Kemmer

Producent

Deana Jakubisková

Manus

Juraj Jakobisko, Jiri Reichel, Jan Novak

Foto

Ján Duris

Musik

Ondrej Soukup, Jan Jirásek

Talat språk

czech

 

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