Aftenlandet

Peter Watkins is maybe the most efficient political director ever.

Although his focus points are clear and his opinion may seem apparent, the audience remains able to develop its own thinking all throughout the film. Minutes go by, and more questions come up to you without them ever being explicit in the movie itself. Some problems find answers, but others are yours to deal with.

Very few directors have been able to reach such levels on topics that are as hot as the ones tackled here. A little bit of research on Watkins and his approach to audiovisual communication tells how dangerous his mastership of cinematic technique is.

Whether you agree with his political opinions are not, the man is a genius.

One of the most important filmmakers to have ever lived, and I'm counting them on my two hands only.

In this explosive, slow burning film Watkins infuriated both sides of the political spectrum in Denmark - which is to the film's honor! Evening Land is careful and disturbingly realistic near future sci-fi that continues Watkins documentary inspired filmmaking. The film is an incredible study in just how carefully it crafts it's world, and it's done to such perfection that many people easily could be fooled by it's authenticity today.

The focus of the film is a large scale strike carried out by danish workers who refuse to construct submarines (and ships) that will (likely) carry nuclear weapons and a conference that might determine the future presence of nuclear weapons in Europe. At the same time "non-violent" terrorists strike, leading to full scale orchestrated panic, bad journalism, resurgence of the right and a continuing downward spiral into a bleaker and bleaker reality.

It's only true downside is that it can be a bit long-winded, particularly the early portions of the film were we mostly focus on the worker conflict, and we still seem to be in normative Scandinavia (I even had to check if this was in fact a documentary). Put the fact that the path to dystopia is painted by reality (or something dangerously close) only increases the value of the work.

The rhetoric used by the increasingly oppressive government is exactly the same you'd not only expect to hear today, but likely have heard many times before. You can also understand the rational of all sides, you can understand why the government and the factories want this, you can see why most people wouldn't even think this was a particularly big problem, and you can see how each event influence the next. 8/10.