MQFF NOTES: I, Olga Hepnarova (2016, Dirs. Petr Kazda, Tomas Weinreb)

Fans of icy cold cinema will revel in I, Olga Hepnarová. We’re talking bleak-as-fuck cinema. No-iota-of-human-feeling-to-be-found cinema. “Misanthropy: The Film” level stuff.

As you can imagine, it is not a film to be enjoyed. Then, any exploration of Hepnarová’s motivations for purposely mowing down pedestrians with her truck on a Prague footpath in 1973 was going to be a slog. Directors Petr Kazda and Tomás Weinreb take the experiential route and since the experience amounts to getting inside the head of a teenage sociopath who cannot comprehend why the world treats her so terribly, things aren’t pleasant.

Michalina Olszanska commits wholeheartedly to the morose lead role, a performance that relies heavily on her ability to stare disaffectedly at the camera while people walk in and out of frame. Nothing connects with her and she connects with nothing. She has no-hearted flings. She gets badly beaten. She stares daggers at her family over soup.

There’s absolutely no budge here. Kasda and Weinreb don’t seek connection. Their adherence to recreating Hepnarová’s social isolation isolates their audience. Adam Sikora’s black and white cinematography has a crystalline beauty but is bereft of warmth. The screenplay offers little insight into Hepnarová or her actions than the manifesto she posted to the papers before her murderous revenge on the society she didn’t understand.

An interesting art piece – one that may push you over the edge.

★★★

Trailer:

I, Olga Hepnarová screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2017. 

You can check out other films from the festival here.