Cinema-magic
out of the middle of europe
The 125 minutes long film "Carpatia" stood out at the opening day
of the "Diagonale". The movie does not have actors, action, sex,
narration, fast cuts, hardly any camera rides, and very little music. Whoever
thinks that this makes "Carpatia" boring, will be nicely surprised.
The documentary by Andrzej Klamt and Ulrich Rydzewski, is one of the most
remarkably filmed in this genre over the last few years.
It is a very deliberate, almost silent journey through the Carpathian mountains.
The journey leads through the Ukraine, Transylvania and Slovakia. Big close-ups,
landscape panoramas of overwhelming density, subtle atmospheric sounds of
wind, water, animals and humans that seem to be living in the midst of the
last century,
telling about their everyday life, contribute to the magic of this film. The
two cinema hours calm the heartbeat, allow the eyes to bade, and bring joy
to the soul. (...)
