‘The Landscape And The Fury’: Visions du Reel Review

Dir/scr: Nicole Vogele. Switzerland, 2024. 140mins

The current previous lies slightly below the floor alongside the Bosnia and Herzegovina-Croatia border in The Panorama And The Fury, current within the deserted artefacts of battle and felt within the lives of those that have survived warfare. In Nicole Vogele’s sombre, atmospheric and immersive documentary, the fragility of on a regular basis life on this space is challenged by the arrival of refugees fleeing horrors which might be all too acquainted to the individuals right here. This shared expertise fosters a bond of compassion that lies on the coronary heart of a restrained however rewarding movie that ought to safe additional competition curiosity after profitable the Grand Jury Prize at Visions du Reel.

 Sombre, atmospheric and immersive 

Vogele, whose earlier documentaries embrace Fog (2014) and Closing Time (2018), chooses to not present the viewer with any context or introduction. (It’s only within the closing credit that we uncover that filming befell in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, close to the border with Croatia.) As a substitute, we’re immersed within the panorama. In the dead of night of night time, we hear a rumble of thunder, the crack of twigs as ft edge by way of the darkness and cries of “wait, wait!”. In daylight, we see huge forests and the remnants of the Nineties Bosnian warfare – a rusted tank, a rounded bomb crater and a staff systematically marking off the place land mines nonetheless lie buried. But, on some degree, life is regular. Wooden is chopped, corn is harvested, males meet for a beer on the solely store for miles. The weird comes within the type of refugees looking for momentary shelter and relaxation as they undertake epic journeys to security.

The movie’s measured pacing and sometimes static camerawork insist that the viewer should concentrate to what’s in entrance of them. On nearer examination, the rain-sodden fields and muddy paths reveal the lives of those that are passing by way of. Damaged telephones, misplaced footwear and passport pictures will be glimpsed simply beneath the fallen autumn leaves. Random snatches of dialog present a way of what refugees have skilled by the hands of the Croatian police who – in shades of Agnieszka Holland’s Inexperienced Border – are accused of stealing their cash, smashing their telephones and sending them again the place they got here from. For some, it’s clearly not the primary time they’re trying this journey. A person on a tractor passes a bunch of misplaced refugees and doesn’t even give them a second look, suggesting how commonplace their presence has change into. 

Vogele makes wonderful use of sound design to additional esconce the viewer within the location. The clang of a cow bell, the bark of a canine, the regular drip of rain by way of a forest of bushes all construct the image of a comparatively sleepy rural group.

Intensely observational in her painstaking method, Vogele finds a few of her greatest sequences in these second that reveal the best humanity. Two outdated associates casually keep in mind fallen comrades from three many years earlier, quietly concluding, ”It’s good that it’s over.” A Bosnian household sit within the consolation of their house discussing how essential it’s to supply some meals and help to any refugee who asks for it. “Seeing them jogs my memory of outdated occasions,” one declares.

That shared expertise of peril informs an intuition for compassion. When a bunch of refugees later discover a momentary summer time refuge, the solar is out and native resident Samir provides them a present of a small inflatable paddling pool for the youngsters. It’s a day that stays with them on the lengthy journey forward. 

The Panorama And The Fury by no means spells something out, and may probably profit from additional trimming. Vogele places her belief within the viewer to ask questions, assume deeply and study from the larger truths revealed in snatches of conversations, anguished cries in the dead of night and random acts of kindness.