A WEEKLY FILM NEWSLETTER PROMOTING ARTHOUSE, REPERTORY, ART, SHORT FORM AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA SCREENING IN THE CITY OF MELBOURNE

April 27 2023

Olga (2021)

Directed by Elias Grappe

DCP Courtesy: Screen Inc.

Screening in cinemas May 3 2023

Classification: M

Words by Jasper Caverly 27/04/2023

In the very first frames of Olga (2021) we see the film’s titular character (played by Anastasia Budiashkina) and her close friend Sasha (Sabrina Rubstova) suspended upright on their hands, racing a group of teenage boys across a sports field. This is the uncrushable spirit of the Ukrainian people in action - where joy is an act of resistance - and the strength of youth, whose invincible ego holds immense potential.

This isn't the first time Olga director, Elie Grappe, has examined the relationship between young minds, their bodies and the expectations projected onto them. His previous work, the short film Suspendu (2015), is also concerned with the relationship between desire and limitation: where a young dancer pushes himself to the edge of his physical capabilities in preparation for a ballet audition.

In many ways, Suspendu is a proof of concept for Olga as both films find conflict in a character’s ceaseless determination against their bodily capacity: an irresistible force paradox. Grappe confirms this in an interview with Variety stating, “[Olga is]... an examination in continuity with my shorts. But this time I wanted to confront the individual desire of my character with much more at stake.”

This dramatic evolution comes in the way of Grappe’s debut feature, a Cannes Critics’ Week premiere, which sees a fifteen-year-old gymnast exiled from the Ukraine following an attempt on her mother’s life by the Yanukovych government. Arriving in Switzerland to continue her training for the 2013 European Championship, Olga must reckon with the cultural distance and physical separation from her family and the Euromaidan uprising at home.

Sitting at a desirable 90 minute run time, Olga spares no time in attaching us closely to the titular character and her desires. The audience is often kept close to Olga by covering Anastasia Budiashkina’s performance in character-focused close-ups, a shallow depth of field applied to favour the subject over their environment. By giving space for the first-time actor to transmit her intensity to the screen, Grappe’s minimalist approach to direction allows Budiashkina to dazzle physically and convey complex emotions with a mature, embodied intelligence.

Within these opposing forces of Budiashkina’s performace, Olga herself is a character with a nature of duplicity. Grappe often employs juxtaposition to convey this: whether it be through costume to track assimilation, in dynamic sound design choices that shift the audience between the internal and external (and finished five days before the premiere) or the use of intercutting constructed, narrative-focused footage with media from citizen journalists reporting from Kyiv. But Olga’s duality is most unsparing with affect in the writing itself: where each supposed victory seems to come at a personal cost - each resolution comes with a subsequent consequence.

This is best seen when Olga and Sasha take their separate paths, the former choosing to disown her citizenship and continue her lifelong dedication to athletics whereas the latter uses her platform to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian uprising. In both cases, these young women’s bodies are politicised and the circumstances see them destined to fail either themselves, their peers or their country. Competing is both apolitical and ignorant just as not competing is selfish and irresponsible: a tragic Catch 22.

This conflict refutes the maxim that wants to ‘keep politics out of sport’ by illustrating, with painful awareness, that Olga and her peers have the expectations of adulthood projected onto their adolescent bodies. Grappe acknowledges the presence of this discord in Olga, telling Cannes Critics’ Week that identity during teenage-hood is, “...a taxing time, a time when we seek emancipation and to fulfil our desires… when identity is unclear, in one’s flesh even, because the body changes… and it is also when one starts addressing political issues…”, highlighting the interplay between the physical extremities of gymnastics and the social responsibilities of national representation.

Much like Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake) or Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy), filmmakers invested in social realism, Grappe positions Olga at the centre of a dramatic turbulence where conflict with an unjust bureaucracy is not a direct result of her actions but is ultimately her responsibility to navigate. The cinematic language is grounded in this same mode, where the camera is almost always handheld when close to human subjects -a means for immediacy that asks us to experience alongside Olga.

But while Grappe is like-minded in a concern for those who are exploited within hierarchies of power, Olga differentiates in choosing to break the conventions of material authenticity (a ‘rule’ social realist filmmakers ascribe to) in lieu of impressionistic editing, camera movement and visual metaphor.

Toward the climax of the film, Grappe employ some of these material abstraction in a haunting scene Olga wakes to find her bedroom in flames - the safety of her refuge jeopardised. Despite her ability to overcome persisting social challenges or to pull off complex aerial maneuvers while avoiding serious physical harm: Olga cannot escape (nor understand) the horrors faced by her compatriots in Kyiv from the comfort of her alpine home.

This ephemeral touch of the dream-state invading Olga’s waking life feels like the first motivation for action in which she has control over her own future. It’s important that Grappe returns a sense of autonomy to her here, otherwise questions about narrative intention would be entirely valid.

Here too, the notion of cultural appropriation or a Eurocentric, sadistic voyeurism that is present in social realism should be addressed. While a subject opinion, Grappe’s dedication to approaching Olga like a documentary - and the inclusion of Ukrainian filmmakers and academics in consultancy roles - satisfies an authorial intention prefacing solidarity.

It would be remiss not to situate the film within the context of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in February of 2022. The revolution of the Yanukovych government in the Euromaidan uprising is in fact a direct catalyst for the current conflict in the former Soviet countries' aspiration to achieve liberation through NATO protection (just as they sought EU recognition in 2013).

The perception of the 2013 uprising amongst other European citizens is shown as a vulgar act when Olga is forced to defend the actions of the Ukrainian people to two family members who have prejudiced perceptions of the country and its people. This moment mirrors recent propaganda that Russian media spread regarding the insurgence of ‘violent nationalists groups’ - their justification for the annexing of Crimea and subsequent invasion in 2022.

Grappe’s film doesn’t aim to fulfill a fantasy of prosperity in its conclusion. Olga is forced to come to terms with her body having an expiration date and we get a sense that our embodied pain is incomparable to the intangible, collective trauma that persists generationally. It’s here the people of Ukraine’s image of fierce stoicism is shown with unexpected vulnerability, with Olga asking in the final sequence of the film: “How am I going to deal with this?”.

Tickets:

Charity Screening May 3, 2023

$6.50 from every ticket sold will be donated UN Women Australia’s Ukraine Emergency Appeal

Tickets Here

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WEEKLY FILM LISTINGS

April 27 - May 03

ACMI

Indonesian Film Festival 2023 (27-30 April)

Pengadbi Setan 2: Communion

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Noktah Merah Perkawinan

Sabrina Rochelle Kalangie, 2022

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Like & Share

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Cek Toko Sebelah 2

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Jackie Brown

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Ennio: The Maestro

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First Nations Film Club

Here I Am

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ARTIST FILM WORKSHOP

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ASTOR CINEMA

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BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)

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CINÉ-CLUB (Carlton)

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The Fly
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CINEMANIACS (ACMI)

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CINEMA NOVA

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Beau is Afraid

Ari Aster, 2023

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Masquerade

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Saturday 28 April

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Elias Grappe, 2021

Screening Wed 3 May

The Giants

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Suzume

Makoto Shinkai, 2023

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The Innocent

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EO

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Air
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Broker

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Of An Age

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Aftersun

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Women Talking

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Triangle of Sadness

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The Whale

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The Banshees of Inisherin

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FRENCH FILM CLUB

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DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: Season Two

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THE ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE @ CINEMA NOVA

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Masquerade

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Screening Wed 3 May

A Good Person

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Air
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EO

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Broker

Hirokazu Koreeda, 2022

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Aftersun

Charlotte Wells, 2023

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Women Talking

Sarah Polley, 2023

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Tár

Todd Field, 2022

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Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund, 2022

Screening Daily

The Whale

Darren Aronofsky, 2023

Screening Daily

THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE(ACMI)

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+
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Screening Daily

A Good Person

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The Giants

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Beau is Afraid

Ari Aster, 2023

Screening Daily

The Innocent

Louis Garrel, 2022

Screening Daily

Suzume

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Screening Daily

EO

Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022

Screening Daily

The Pope’s Exorcist
Julius Avery, 2023
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Broker

Hirokazu Koreeda, 2022

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Of an Age

Goran Stolevski, 2022

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Living

Oliver Hermanus, 2022

Screening Daily

Empire of Light

Sam Mendes, 2023

Screening Daily

Aftersun

Charlotte Wells, 2023

Screening Daily

The Whale

Darren Aronofsky, 2023

Screening Daily

The Banshees of Inisherin

Martin McDonagh, 2023

Screening Daily

SUN CINEMAS YARRAVILLE

Polite Society

Nida Manzoor, 2023

Screening Daily

A Good Person

Zach Braff, 2023

Screening Daily

Beau is Afraid

Ari Aster, 2023

Screening Daily

EO

Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022

Screening Daily

Of an Age

Goran Stolevski, 2022

Screening Daily

Living

Oliver Hermanus, 2022

Screening Daily

Empire of Light

Sam Mendes, 2023

Screening Daily

Aftersun

Charlotte Wells, 2023

Screening Daily

The Whale

Darren Aronofsky, 2023

Screening Daily

The Banshees of Inisherin

Martin McDonagh, 2023

Screening Daily

THORNBURY PICTURE HOUSE

The Giants

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Suzume
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A Good Person

Zach Braff, 2023

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