Times were always hard for the British
Arthouse film-maker and never more so than right now. British
directors, those wishing to pursue more enlightened ideals than
cockney gangster geezer pastiches or clapped out movie vehicles for
overexposed TV stars, are increasingly looking abroad for funding.
Here we find director Peter Strickland,
having made a string of acclaimed shorts in the 1990s, shooting his
first feature on an ultra-low budget in Transylvania using Hungarian
actors speaking their own language, Strickland himself having almost
no command of Hungarian.
High risk potential, then, but it pays
off handsomely. Katalin Varga plays like the spirit of Andrei
Tarkovsky let loose on a Korean revenge tragedy. We follow the
eponymous avenger of the title as she goes in pursuit of the man who
raped her. Accompanied by her ten-year old son, they travel across a
desolately beautiful rural landscape which seems almost to be
seethingly alive around the characters.
Indeed, the living countryside in the
film is like a character itself. In one charged scene, Varga
recounts her experience of the rape and describes how in the
aftermath the animals of the forest came and covered her. It is as
if she is some mythical spirit of the dark woods, born into Varga’s
form.
Painterly visuals are heightened
further by a truly outstanding soundtrack, incorporating pieces by
Nurse With Wound’s Steven Stapleton mixed with shades of dark
ambient and environmental music, enhancing an impression of rushing,
ever rushing over dark surfaces with no good end in sight.
This is a masterly debut feature from Strickland, who really deserves
homegrown funding, should he ever actually desire it.
Sat 27 June 20:25 Filmhouse 1