Tokkotai Paquetá & Iron

Programme

• 

  Tokkotai Paquetá

  On the tranquil island of Paquetá, in Guanabara Bay, northwest of the city of Rio de Janeiro, someone is relaxing on the shore beside the rocks. Intimate telephone conversations contrast against news reports about the war in Ukraine, which is taking place simultaneously on a different plane.
  
  Between the lines, director Cao Guimarães weaves the story of a Japanese kamikaze pilot during the Second World War. His camera often turns to the nature of Paquetá: wind blowing through a treetop, a flock of birds skimming over the water, a colony of great egrets crossing a street.
  
  As in his previous work, Guimarães finds a casual poetry in the details in this short documentary. Yet there is also a bitter note to Tokkotai Paquetá: however peaceful the island may be, every now and then the war, like a seal, raises its head above the surface.

• 

  Iron

  As armed conflict flares up at the edges of Europe, the commemoration of the Second World War is used to prepare people for renewed conflict. In Azerbaijan, the recent expulsion of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh is presented as a national success. And in Russia, with much flag-waving, bombastic language and tank parades, the invasion of Ukraine is equated with the victory over fascism in 1945.
  
  Meanwhile, the Polish army displays its latest acquisitions, and the residents of Kyiv – between air-raid sirens – view the destroyed tanks that their own army has captured from the Russians. It’s only in Berlin that the public pays little attention to the Soviet memorial in Tiergarten Park, close to the once-defeated Reichstag, and dances as if there’s no tomorrow at an open-air techno party.
  
  Filmmaker Vitaly Mansky was born in Ukraine, made critical documentaries in Russia in the 1990s and lives in Latvia due to his political stance since 2014. By showing how war commemorations vary across Europe, without commentary, he exposes a fundamental and potentially dangerous difference in mentality.