The Kids Are Not Alright
Fathoming the uncharted nooks and crannies of the human psyche is a must for every writer and director, if they want to say something valid and gritty about human nature. The audience love it too: they can have a close look at the twisted minds and pathologies of deeply flawed characters from the secure embrace of a convenient chair in a cosy cinema. Whether it is central to the plot or just happens for its own sake, cinematic art is especially abundant in attempts to explore a special kind of deep and dark recess of the soul – sexual disorders. This year’s Festival welcomes five movies reflecting on paedophilia.
But can they measure up to such outstanding independent American predecessors as The Woodsman by Nicole Kassell and Michael Cuesta’s L.I.E., where the whole plot revolves around this deeply disturbing subject matter, or Louis Theroux’s plucky documentary about the same subject? They all give a rounded picture of these dysfunctional elements, showing us how deeply damaged and human they are, which puts us in a very tough spot.
Paedophilia should be on the list of the seven deadly sins. Or it may not be that simple. Even these seemingly inhuman creatures have their human sides. ‘Their bad part is what they did not choose,’ says one of the social workers in Louis Theroux’s documentary. And from this point on we can embark on an endless philosophical debate on what makes us human and to what extent we have the free will to change. This may be the reason why this theme is so hard to tackle. On the one hand, the audience should not be allowed to cherish too much compassion for them. On the other, cheap sexual sensationalism should also be avoided. So this complex and distressing substance poses an enormous challenge for filmmakers, only to be overcome by intellectual and emotional subtlety.
Although its eponymous character is a paedophile, first-time Austrian director Markus Schleinzer’s Michael is not a movie about paedophilia. The sexual disorder is merely part of the psychological depiction of a ridiculously insignificant and stereotypical Austrian petit-bourgeois. This barely human creature was meant to be so minimal and irrelevant to the world that only when he dies does it turn out that his name was Michael, and that he was supposed to be the main character. The anally-fixated, over-scrupulous office worker is leading the most petty and perverted life we could ever imagine. Michael holds captive a little boy to satisfy his bottomless sickness. The visual style in Schleinzer’s movie perfectly fits the story of such a piddling character: there is no visual style. All the grim shots are purely functional. But if you want to see a movie about the perverted petit-bourgeois lives of the stereotypical suburbanites in Austria, you’re better off choosing Ulrich Seidle’s Dog Days.
In Hagar Ben Asher’s The Slut, people from less privileged classes live a vague life in the countryside, where their only pleasure is having ugly sex with the local prostitute. Although the slut seemingly has an intimate relationship with her altruistic veterinary boyfriend, she is unable to give up on her former life for the sake of love, and eventually cheats on him. Then he, out of sheer revenge, sleeps with one of her daughters, with whom he’s had a warm and caring relationship up until that point. It seems to be a highly mannered overreaction, frustratingly exaggerated and unmotivated even though we can imagine that one might be capable of extremes. Paedophilia is a perfect and convenient tool to impart a bleak message.
Snowtown by Justin Kurzel is a devastatingly intense piece that works on all levels but it doesn’t attempt to say anything new about paedophilia. The axis of the story is the relationship of a serial killer psychopath and a vulnerable schizophrenic teenage boy molested by his own brother. Paedophilia is only an excuse for the charmingly manipulative John to embark on a killing spree, pretending to be the saviour of the deprived kids.
Paedophilia will always shock, hence it presents itself as a bold choice if a director wants to dig deep, down and dirty without too much effort.