It remains miraculous how much emotion intelligent animation can generate. In Another day of life (from 14 March in cinemas) captures the Angolan reporting by legendary Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński in grand pictures. Combined with live footage and well-chosen archive material, it delivers an 85-minute hellscape that can be appreciated on several levels.
Kapuściński (1932-2007) is an early master of literary non-fiction. He earned a reputation for fearlessness, as he usually sought out the world's hotbeds only after the rest of the newsroom had long and wide sought safety. That reputation was partly justified, and he partly cultivated it. Consequently, shortly after Kapuściński's death - one could wait for it - a biography was published in his native country in which the master was reportedly (I don't master Polish, unfortunately) severely criticised. It was about that eternal, classic question: what is factual, what is literary imagination?
Bashir
Raul de la Fuente and Damian Nenow, creators of Another day of life, thank God, leave that issue aside. They decided to take Kapuściński's account of the Angolan civil war as the starting point for a feature film. According to Kapuściński, this book was his most successful and personal work - not a coincidental combination.
It is impossible not to think of Waltz with Bashir to think. Ari Folman processed his war traumas, suffered as an Israeli soldier during the war in Lebanon, in it grandiose. Especially the surreal scenes are strongly reminiscent of the unforgettable and very disturbing dream sequences in Waltz with Bashir.
Disbelief
Even more than with feature film, animation often makes me think of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous dedication to the fiction writer: the suspension of disbelief. In other words, the reader/viewer's willingness to temporarily suspend her or his disbelief, for the duration of the novel/movie. That healthy procrastination took a while to kick in with this viewer. For instance, I initially had some difficulty with the ugly drawn mouths of the characters in Another day of life. The devil is always hiding in the details.
Still, what makes this film so gripping? The moment when the reporter actually encounters the phenomenon of war. All structures fall apart: perception, experience and time shoot apart, any foothold is gone in an instant. Orienting yourself in reality has suddenly become perfectly impossible. What remains is deafening banging, completely destroyed cities, flying blood and body parts. As an inhabitant of a for the time being functioning parliamentary democracy, it is actually impossible in good sense to imagine this, but this film succeeds in this in an overwhelming way.
Dilemma
Even stronger is the heartbreaking scene in which the greatest journalistic dilemma is now made truly palpable. Scene: Kapuściński sits tense as a feather behind his telex in his hotel in Luanda. His Polish editors want copy, and they want it now. Through his far-reaching research, Kapuściński has discovered something huge: Cuba is getting involved in the Angolan civil war with military manpower. A dirty war, which at that point has long since ceased to be a local conflict, but a chapter in the bygone Cold War. Reporting this to his Polish editorial director will no doubt encourage further escalation. This not reporting goes against every journalistic fibre in Kapuściński's body. What to do?
There is no such thing as a consequence-free presence. Simply by being there, by recording, journalism plays a major role anyway and by definition. Incidentally, something that parliamentary journalism in particular should be more aware of, if you ask me. This poignant excerpt provides much food for thought: what has changed decisively since 1975? That uniqueness of the journalist as the eye of the world with an enormous knowledge advantage has completely evaporated now that every person has a smartphone pressed to their body. Whether that is a good or bad thing I leave to the reader.
500.000
What Kapuscinski decided to do I will leave unmentioned here, suffice it to hint, even to the animation sceptic movie-house goer, to go and see this film. How the makers manage to cut the animation with archival footage and newly shot interviews with the main people portrayed is very strong and makes for a film experience that continues to irritate under the skin long after leaving the movie house. The war did not end until 2002, with a reported 500,000 casualties. Nothing was heard of the socialist ideals since then.
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