Not Go Gentle

Sunday Night 12:30am

Sasha Ihnatovich |

2022 |

Slovenia |

5:26 mins |

Idyllic villages hide traces of sorrow and suffering inflicted on humans by each other. The short film is dedicated to all people-on-the move who are risking their lives to avoid arrest, escape violence and border pushbacks, to find safety and refuge.

Not Go Gentle, by Sasha Ihnatovich, is another film on this year’s programme dealing in the experience of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The aesthetic recalls First Work of Mercy, in our fiction category, yet in an intriguing documentary style some interesting explorations occur. Against the backdrops of haunting, mist filled black and white Slovenia, the voices, text and experiences of migrants are heard.

The collision between sound and image is the most intriguing aspect of Not Go Gentle. The image tells us of a conflicted Europe, here Slovenia. The idyllic natural settings are contrasted by the black and white cinematography. Though beautiful, there is a certain barren quality to the images. Moreover, the shots utilise depth of space and wide angle composition evoking a sense of wide space. The images seem at the same time plentiful and expansive yet haunted, void and stark.

In combination with sound and text this opposition is evoked. Indeed, it is not so much an opposition than a natural understanding of European attitudes to others. The text onscreen tells us of differing experiences of state violence and violence against bodies. At the same time, the sound design evokes feelings of terror and anxiety as we hear police dogs and people screaming and pleading. What isn’t physically there by violent exclusion, migrants and others, is re-inscribed by Ihnatovich onto the very landscape that they are excluded from. Thus, questions of land, nation, identity and belonging are posed to us.