People look down on each other. They do not speak out about the injustice around them and continue to live in their shells until cracks appear in their housing and they have to go out. Society gives excessive importance to officials. They do not understand that officials are also ordinary people who have found themselves at a relatively high hierarchical level.
Mikheil Gabaidze's film, "Vasomotor Rhinitis" (2024) is neither a comedy nor a tragicomedy. It is a sharp social satire that criticizes the indifference and hierarchical structure of society. The film is not just a mirror of society, but a magnifying glass that reveals the fears and weaknesses of each of them. “Vasomotor Rhinitis” is not only a tool of social criticism, but also a multifaceted work that gives depth to every detail. The title, Vasomotor Rhinitis, is a biological disease that implies an incorrect reaction of the organism. In the film, this is a metaphor: society itself creates problems, imposes restrictions and resists change. This is a situation when a malfunctioning system weakens society like a diseased organism and gives rise to a feeling of powerlessness.
A high-ranking official and a clerk are those common types that can be adapted to any social situation. David Jakeli’s character embodies an unrealized, little guy. He is an insignificant bolt in a large mechanism, the loss of which will not reduce the mechanism in any way, and all this is only his fault. He subconsciously sees himself as a person who does not even have the right to speak out. This is precisely why he is a small, weak person in the eyes of others, who is ignored.
The clerk is tormented by the feeling of unrecognition. He feels that no one listens, no one sees him, he represents nothing. All this is exacerbated by the fact that some high-ranking official has ignored his apology. He has a lot of things to do with him. He doesn’t want to apologize anymore, he wants to shout, scold and tell them how he could have dared not to listen to him, but he only does this at home, in front of the mirror. He slurps water like a fish and falls silent. Dressed elegantly, he returns to apologize again and again. This endless cycle creates emptiness in him, he feels as if he has been thrown off the roof of a tall building.
The scene where the official struggles with his own weakness is symbolic. It shows how the system manages to subjugate a person, how it destroys him from within. The mirror in front of which he fights his own reflection is an echo of his conscience, his “alter ego.” It shows that a person is not always powerless, that he can resist, even if only against himself. But the society that surrounds him is so strong that he is unable to realize this resistance. The elegant clothes in which he returns to the formal environment are his social mask, behind which he hides his true face. This mask protects him, but at the same time it distances him from himself and turns him into a social ghost, deprived of his own voice, opinion and life.
There is another side to the story of the clerk and the high-ranking official. The latter has become fed up with his position. Every day he hears the problems of countless people, and now some official has come to him, who did not allow him to enjoy the concert normally and even wet his neck. He cannot get rid of this nuisance. He does not know what to do anymore. Wherever he looks, he is everywhere. He can no longer breathe. He is split into two - on one side there is a burned person, on the other side there is a person who wants to take off his shoes when he returns home in the evening, lie down and read the newspaper. He thinks he carries the whole world on his shoulders. He already wastes his life trying to please others. He walks home only to meet a friend who is higher in rank than him at the lift door. For someone, a high-ranking official is an unattainable person and longs for his place, for someone, he is an official who does not believe in himself. They do not understand what they represent and how they can change the life of society. If someone else were in their place, he might have moved mountains.
Both a high-ranking official and a clerk are victims of a common system. Both perceive their problem differently. The first is suffocated by the duties assigned to him, he does not like having to listen to everyone and solve problems. The official wants to be heard and seen.
The film seems to be an allegory of Franz Kafka's “The Trial.” Both explore the same topic. The powerlessness of the individual in front of an absurd and oppressive system that turns a person into a small, insignificant particle. In Kafka's “The Trial,” Josef K. finds himself a victim of a complex system, the essence of which he does not even understand. In both works, the main characters, the official and K., are powerless against the system, which leads to failure. In Gabaidze's film, the system deprives the official of his individuality, forcing him to play the role assigned to him, just as Kafka's hero is forced to fight against the invisible and absurd judicial system. Josef K., like the official, was defeated. He fought for freedom, flopped up his hands in vain, imprisoned. The official was thirsty for recognition. Both died. It was as if a year after Josef’s arrest, who had gone to the peacekeeping camp, one of the guards thoughtlessly put a knife to his throat. He had a feeling of protest. He was defeated by his own weaknesses. He could not express the anger that was choking him. Only two words escaped him, and those were barely “They killed me like a dog!” - as if this shame had outlived him.
“Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry, as, to behold desert a beggar born,” writes William Shakespeare in his 66th sonnet. The clerk was killed by the loss of his remaining dignity. The already small one became even smaller and ended up speechless.
“Vasomotor Rhinitis” is not just a story about a clerk, a high-ranking official, or a specific social class. This is a work that is about everything and everyone. Its main question is not whether people will change, but when and how. The character of the official shows how deep the system is and how painful it is to realize that change only happens when it is already too late.
There are people who never dare to speak out, although they feel a constant protest inside. After the film, only one question remains - what do we do when our lives resemble the life of an official?
Barbare Kalaijishvili
