Each person has different dreams, desires and goals. Regrettable is the life of a person who has none of them and strives only for satisfying natural needs. Such people, in fact, do not even think about the comfort and rights of others and sometimes violate them indirectly or explicitly. Anyone can become their victim today, tomorrow or even at the end of the week.
Archil Sichinava's student film, "Sunday" (2016), tells the story of just such people. It describes events in four people’s lives, which unfold on one day, judging by the title, Sunday. You will not find any kind of dialogue in the film but only music which, no matter how strange it may be, does not last forever. Unfortunately, the melody is so boring and meaningless that the mind still gets tired and wants to listen to something else. However, this desire is in vain. Moments that are not accompanied by music are distinguished by quite well-recorded sounds.
The film begins with shots taken at the station square, showing how and in what conditions people live and work. The camera follows one boy, giving us the illusion that he is the main character although we are sorely mistaken. Next are shots of the underground station. Two young men dressed in the so-called "crony" style stare intently at another passenger, a girl. Although this gaze lasts for several minutes and is quite uncomfortable for the girl, the boys are not satisfied with this and follow her when she gets out of the carriage. Of course, there are boys like this, we probably pass by many of them during the day and don't even know about it. Some of us may have had unpleasant experiences with similar ones. Therefore, the director has tackled a rather topical problem and intended to transfer it to the screen although every story, good or bad, should have a logical ending.
Days are sometimes full of surprises. We may run into someone at the bus stop who will make us smile and shed a little light on our tense moments. A similar plot unfolds in the film. We can't call it love, but the small, beautiful feeling that a boy may experience when he sees a girl is conveyed very clearly and pleasantly in this film too. Both characters are wearing captain's hats. Their gaze makes us think that they might have met before or it is just fate. This question will be partially answered in the finale. From the middle of the film, the illusion appears that the main character is a girl. The shot also follows this girl and the location changes. Unfortunately, we can also see those strange boys who chase the girl from the underground station.
Sunday, or a day off. The last of those seven tiring days when, if you're lucky, you can do what you like, not what you have to. At least, that's the impression that the shot should leave you with when the girl is standing and painting with an easel on the shore of Lisi Lake. Although it seems at a glance that she should be painting what she sees, in reality, details have been added to the painting that are not in reality. For example, a sailboat sailing on the lake. This scene turned out to be quite interesting and I think the idea worked. The ship can be perceived as a symbol of the desire to leave, to escape from here. The girl depicted in the painting, in whom the artist probably sees herself, is waiting for salvation, help. The fact that despite the short running time of the film, the main character constantly feels uncomfortable, weak, and vulnerable allows us to logically interpret that she does not want to be here. A place where she won't feel safe in transport or in the forest, where she wants to spend her Sunday in peace and quiet.
The boys follow the girl into the middle of the forest, bringing her belongings, an easel and paints that she threw away when she was running away from the chasers. The ending of the film is, to say the least, a cliché that shouldn't be a cliché, but it still is. In the middle of the forest, the girl runs into another boy, the same one she met at the bus stop earlier. We don't know what their relationship is to each other but what happens next in the film is the most expected development. The boys, who have been chasing the girl all day, meet the girl's "friend," a boy. Here we encounter a very strange "eye for an eye" scene, which seems to be a retelling of one of the famous scenes from the film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" but done very badly. Here as well, like the above-mentioned film, we come across three men. although the ending of this film is very meaningless and incomprehensible. The vigilant boys simply leave.
Was this film about heroism and love? The girl found her sailor prince, who saved her, gave him her painting, and finally we saw a smile on her face. She feels safe and is exactly where she wants to be. On one Sunday, she found what she had probably been looking for a long time.
The plot of the film cannot be distinguished by its originality. Despite the fact that one of its plot lines dealt with a rather urgent problem, this is not enough to tie the film together and present it to the audience as a finished work. Along with the plot, the actors are not distinguished by special professionalism, although the exception is Nini Soselia, who, unlike the others, portrayed her character with more precision. The simplicity that characterizes this film is also accompanied by the banality of the title and exacerbates it. “Sunday” does not say much about the film whose plot could have developed freely on Friday or Saturday.
Freedom, peace and a safe life in the city where you live are indeed relevant issues in the lives of all of us, although their formation in a short film also requires dialogues, not to mention the accuracy and fluency of the plot. Unfortunately, the latter two components are sorely lacking in the film.
Anna Maria Dardagani
