CLIT2007 Film Culture I: Notre Musique
The film is divided into three sections like a poem or a novel: Enfer (Hell), Purgatoire (Purgatory) and Paradis (Paradise).
The first part, Hell, is presented in a non-narrative way. It is made up of lots of clips from documentary or fictional movies which depict violence, massacre, and wars in different places and different phases of time. The narration is talking about forgiveness; however, can anyone really manage to forgive if they experience hell like this?
The second part is called Purgatory. Purgatory is set in Sarajevo, a city which accommodates various races and has experienced cruel wars before. To my surprise, there is no blood or killing anymore but just normal daily life when the war has past. I think the director was trying to express that Purgatory is right now, right here. Even though the violence cannot be seen at this moment, but its influence still exists. For example, the Indians whose land has been robbed and civilization has been ruined by the violent conflicts, came to Sarajevo, which is also be ruined by the wars, claim their pursuit of freedom and rights, grabbing the white people’s books when they are reading. In Purgatory, characters are from different cultural backgrounds -- the French, the Israeli, the Jewish, the Palestinian – and it is exactly the differences in backgrounds that make their dialogue interesting. There are some dialogues which really impresses me. “- Why the revolution does not arise from humanitarians? – Because humanitarians do not make revolutions; they make libraries.” “- Why are Palestinians famous? - Because our enemy is Israeli; everyone is interested in you, not me.”
The final part is Paradise, where is full of flowers, by the sea, and everyone seems happy and painless. In the Purgatory, when Olga is asked why she came to Sarajevo, she answered that she would like to find whether there is a place on the earth that people can get along with each other in peace. However, she finds such a place only when she is killed and came to the paradise. She used to worry about her afterlife after her suicide, but fortunately, she came to the Paradise where seems to have no worries. It may be a clue that the director believes that there is not such a dreamy place in the real world. However, ironically, the Paradise are guarded by American soldiers with guns. Is it a sarcasm that America always participate into wars in the name of peace and human rights?
In my opinion, Hell is about the wars, which happens everywhere. It took place in the past and would never stop. Purgatory is about what the war left to the people. It is happening right now and would last long. Paradise can only happen in our dream but not the real world.
