andjel

This is a collection of four short, depressing films, as the title itself suggests: There Is No Salvation! However, even though they are short films, they feel quite long because there is almost no dialogue, and the scenes often remain static, requiring the viewer to fill them with their own interpretation.

All the stories presented here are ambiguous, and it is never entirely clear what is really going on. In the first part of each segment, the challenge is to figure out what the story is about, and even the endings do not provide definitive answers, leaving plenty of room for reflection and personal interpretation. Since there is very little dialogue, the film relies heavily on visual impression and the depiction of action, though this could have been executed better. Still, I appreciate that the film does not lead the viewer by the hand, but instead allows them to reach their own conclusions. There are also several striking and unsettling scenes by which these films will likely be remembered.

Of the four films, the first one ended up being my favorite, although the last one also leaves a strong impression. What they all have in common is that they depict unusual, perhaps even symbolic situations in which people search for some kind of salvation—and whether they find it is revealed by the title of the entire omnibus.

The final story includes English subtitles, but despite having only about ten spoken lines, there is still a gramatical slip in one of them, where the main character says: “Hlep me!” If only people in desperate situations would remember to cry out to God.