Sermon to the Fish
Original title:
"I was so so tired and went to the forest and sat under an oak tree. I dreamed and dreamed and then decided to make a film like a dream and started the War Tales trilogy. I wish I didn’t..."
- Hilal Baydarov
RATING: 4/5
REVIEW
On the verge of starting his own personal cinematic trilogy, Baydarov resumes a linear anti-narrative and structures further his cinematic language.
If Crane Lantern featured a slight loss of content compà red to Nails in my Brain or a lack of storyline when confronted with In Between Dying, Sermon to the Fish is a clear evolution in Baydarov: although it does not feature a definite plot, it indeniably has a storyline. A woman is the last survivor of a plague that hit the village, and towards her death tries to connect with nature. Her brother returns from the war, suffering from PTSD.
The spiritual journey of the deuteragonists is paralleled through the contrapposition of a post-industrial, polluted landscape (similar to that of Crane Lantern) and a dry, wastelandesque natural setting.
Baydarov's cinema demands the centrality of metaphysics and spirituality over other topics, hence the introduction of war becomes the detailing of the spiritual damage of war. Similarly, ecological decadence becomes a degradation of the soul. Decomposition itself becomes a from of metamorphosis into nature.
It is worth to note that Sermon to the fish visually references The Wasteland by Ahmad Bahrami, which premiered at Venice the same year Baydarov gained international notoriety with his In Between Dying at the same festival. Bahrami's film extensively references Béla Tarr's filmography, and Baydarov studied at Tarr's course in Sarajevo. The connection between Baydarov and Bahrami feels like the closing of a circle in which directors with very different voices influence each other mutually.
Originally posted on the instagram page on August 28, 2022
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