THE LINE (Čiara) B
Slovakia Ukraine
(112 mi) 2017 d:
Peter Bebjak Film Čiara: The Line
A
tongue-in-cheek comedy about the travails of border smuggling, where police
bribes are the key to their success, revealing a world where corruption is the
only way to do business, though lurking behind the scenes is a darker, Mafioso
gangster that everyone is actually working for, who is nothing less than
ruthless when it matters, exposing a harrowing world of crime and punishment. Set in 2007, the film is a mad rush to make
what profits they can while security is still lax before Slovakia joins the Schengen
Area, an EU collective of states that operates with open borders without
passports or Visa’s, where the appearance of efforts to beef up security concerns
are in full swing prior to the change-over.
Welcome to the Slovak-Ukrainian border region, where the film attempts
to resemble the stylishness of an Emir Kusturica film, who is a clear influence
on the director, though as he puts it, “If you have a story with people
drinking, fighting and playing an accordion, it does not necessarily mean it is
Kusturica.” Fair enough, but this film
pales in comparison to the director of TIME OF THE GYPSIES (1988) and
UNDERGROUND (1995), whose rollicking political satires offer an entirely
different view of the world through an absurdist lens, while this film is
entertaining, but never kicks it into another level. Slovak strongman Adam Krajňák (Tomáš Maštalír),
an Eastern version of Jason Statham, is a hard-assed crime boss that preaches
the importance of family, but rules with an iron fist, where cutting off the
finger of one of his henchmen is viewed as the right thing to do, as he
knowingly crossed the line, violating his principled position to refuse
smuggling hard drugs across the border, even though this jeopardizes everything
he’s worked for, because if he doesn’t do it, someone else will, which takes
money out of his pocket. Navigating
one’s way through this minefield of principled ethics and routine corruption is
no easy matter, as Adam answers to Ukrainian crime boss Krull (Stanislav Boklan),
who operates with no moral boundaries whatsoever, killing anyone that stands in
his way. Nonetheless, the film uses
plenty of sight gags, like every time Adam’s gang meets to discuss “the next job,”
with each absurdly lighting a cigarette in unison as they huddle around him to
get the details.
The film spends
plenty of time with Adam and his cohorts, including his most trusted
confidante, Jona (Eugen Libezňuk), his Ukrainian partner on the other side, who
picks up from Krull what needs to be smuggled, anything from cigarettes,
liquor, even Afghani refugees, where safe passage is guaranteed by the Slovak
border police captain, Peter (Andrej Kryc), who always gets his cut. Influenced by Russia with its lawlessness and
black market economy, always operating outside the rules, this is another one
of those hard-edged, everyone is corrupt kind of films, as there are no jobs,
where presumably the only opportunities for upward mobility are illegal, where
payoffs are so routinely built into the system that no one blinks an eye, but
there’s little concern how this affects others outside this ring of thieves, as
the film literally couldn’t care less, instead it mocks those at the lowest end
of the economic scale, who are seen as bottom feeders pilfering one of Adam’s
transport trucks that crashes on the side of the road, taking all they can
carry, where the whole town from elderly seniors down to infant children are seen
puffing away on cigarettes the next day.
There’s also an amusing narrative strand about a group of young
elementary school kids that take off in their parent’s pink convertible that
simply never develops, still out on the loose, apparently, completely forgotten
by the director and his screenwriter Peter Balko. So while the film has a distinct point of
view, emulating the family crime dramas of The
Sopranos or even THE GODFATHER (1972), it offers precious little insight
into social concerns, save for a brief glimpse into the harrowing life of
escaped refugees, where the film seems to be made with blinders on. Nonetheless, the free-spirited style, constantly
shifting storyline, and underlying suspense is injected with wall-to-wall Balkan-inflected
music by Slavo Solovic that keeps the energy level high, showcasing the fluid
camerawork of Martin Žiaran. After
initially pushing a Ukranian youngster aside as a lovable loser, deemed a
detrimental influence on his oldest daughter Lucia (Kristína Kanátová),
Adam is forced to reconsider after learning she’s pregnant, welcoming Ivor (Oleksandr
Piskunov) to the family, who happens to be the brother of Jona’s wife, even
finding a spot for him in the smuggling business. Peter, the police cop, even sings at the
engagement party, which more closely resembles a biker convention, with all
manner of derelicts showing up drinking themselves into a stupor.
The contrast between contemporary and old school is
charming, where there is honor among thieves, so long as business is good. But that’s where the troubles begin, as Adam’s
business is sabotaged on all sides by the deceitful actions of Krull, prefaced
by a memorable meeting with the crime boss at his kid’s soccer game, with Krull
the only spectator in an otherwise empty stadium, where his overweight nephew on
defense has a tendency to wipe out anyone that comes in his direction, claiming
innocence afterwards when the player is injured, but Krull owns the referees,
allowing him to make the calls from the stands — No foul. In the very same breath, he wants Adam to
move narcotics across the border, something he adamantly refuses to do, which
instigates a parting of the waves, as the two don’t see eye to eye. While the meeting was cordial, with Adam
pledging complete trust and reliability, Krull sees things differently,
undermining his operations, causing one disaster after another, leaving Adam in
a tough spot, as he grows more and more isolated, even assassinating one of
Adam’s henchmen (who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar) right before
his eyes at a flooded rock quarry in an antiquated ritual that suggests these
men have met here many times before.
Spiraling into an anxiety-ridden corner, made that much worse by the
impending closure of the border, the film is steeped with an increasing
paranoia about the world closing in on Adam, as the powers that be are quickly
turning on him, allowing the film to expand its horizons and grow more
contemplative, where the absurdity of living in the East kicks in, where a supposedly
brighter and more hopeful future may actually shut down his gangland operations. That is, if he doesn’t get killed first. Things get pretty grim, where he’s down to
final options, when his mother (Emília Vásáryová), a macabre spectre in the family,
keeping silent most of the time, with a backstory we never learn about, finally
comes out of the shadows and rises to the occasion, making her presence heard,
though things have changed considerably since her glory days. Even so, combining elements of a thriller with
black comedy, and a touch of the surreal, this is a thoroughly entertaining
film, with multiple storylines all plunging headlong into an ominous climax
that tragically marks that auspicious occasion when the EU finally cleans up
border operations, suggesting life will go on, as humans have endured far worse
fates.
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