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By Ilsa Flynn I recently went to see the film Another Day of Life, directed by Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow. Going into the film I was honestly unsure of what to expect. I knew very little regarding the plot or those involved with the film. When I left the cinema, however, I was spellbound. The gravity of the events that occured and the way in which it was composed was unlike anything I had seen before.
The film is based on Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński’s novel of the same name. As a foreign correspondent for the Polish press agency, Kapuściński traveled the world and made people aware of the atrocities that were ongoing in places far from their own. Wherever he went he felt a great commitment to those who surrounded him to help in some fashion. This can be seen obviously in his writing, as I was compelled to research his work after seeing the film. In Another Day of Life, he is in Angola during their civil war. The film follows him as he goes from Luanda, the capital, and around the country. He discovers death and destruction comparable to a hellscape. The animation of the film captures his narrative style beautifully. The blatant surrealism that we have become accustomed, along with animation, mirrors the feelings he conveyed through his writing. Despite watching a completely fabricated world, each moment of the film felt completely real to me. Each frame was so delicately created and entranced me completely. His experiences and concerns were there on the screen in front of me and I did not doubt him for a second. The live action interviews with those who were involved in his expedition and photographs of his travels that were included also rocked me to my core, the transition from the imaginary to the reality felt so seamless, so, so brilliant. A huge part of the film was how it was based on a true story, and it was a film rather than a documentary. Kapuściński has been accused of adding colour or even lying in his writing and has sadly lost his credibility to many of those in his native country. However, many believe he was just pushing the boundaries of journalism, and that while everything he wrote may not have been 100% factual but his intent was to keep everyone who he encountered and his own beliefs at the forefront of his writing. This is why I believe this film is even more genius. The film does not try to tell his story as if it played out action for action, they animate it. The world comes apart and rearranges itself in front of your eyes. It is a film, a window to the imagination. The colour he adds to the story conveys how he felt. This was his truth. The story is based on the individual experience of Kapuściński himself. I love how blatant they make this. It is a slap in the face for traditional film culture where filmmakers feel it is necessary to mimic reality as much as possible, the accent training and the prosthetics and so on, and it is refreshing to find a film that fully accepts what it is.
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