Lucija Furac on Alexandru Solomon’s Arsenie: An Amazing Afterlife from the 2024 Zagreb DOX regional competition

[…] One may suggest Solomon deals here with what is known in literary theory as “aesthetics of reception,” i.e. the examination of reactions to the given phenomenon in specific historical and personal contexts, rather than the phenomenon itself in some idealistic, isolated way. The director has explored different facets of Eastern European present social reality in several of his earlier documentaries, primarily by examining the beliefs and promises of the previous regimes (Great Communist Bank Robbery, Cold Waves, Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula, Tarzan’s Testicles). In his latest work, he wants to know something about the very pilgrims, as if looking for the mechanism behind the “Father Arsenie Effect.” Yet by paying attention to some of the pilgrims’ most absurd attitudes, Solomon also provides his own commentary. To truly buy into the contemporary story of Boca, it is suggested, is to resort to some form of escapism at best. There is no condemnation or didacticism in the delivery of this thought but satire. As the audience joins the pilgrims on their journey, it also witnesses the making of a staged play about Boca’s life. […]

read the whole article on Lucija Furac’s blog