Film Review: FUGUE (2022) DIR. AGNIESZKA SMOCZYNSKA
Film Still from Fugue © DEKANALOG
Written by Belle McIntyre
The influence of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Andre Wajda on the work of this director is obvious in all the best ways. The story is based on an actual case of a woman suffering from a specific, and rare brain dysfunction which the director and screenwriter had come across. It was ripe with possibilities and they created a mesmerizing and involving film based on an unimaginable condition.
Film Still from Fugue © DEKANALOG
We meet the protagonist of this strangely minimalist mystery story, as she crawls from the earth in a wooded area, as if she is emerging from a chrysalis like a moth or butterfly. She is wearing a white trench coat and high heels. She has shoulder-length blond hair and looks dazed and confused, but otherwise totally presentable. The camera follows her as she walks along the railroad tracks to a train station and manages to unsettle the other travellers by blithely pulling up her skirt and urinating on the platform, making no effort at discretion.
Film Still from Fugue © DEKANALOG
Cut to a hospital where the same woman looking like a beaten-up version of Laurie Anderson is undergoing all manner of examinations, including cat scans, brain scans, physical and mental interrogations under intense scrutiny. It seems she has a case of complete amnesia and does not know her name or her identity prior to turning up in the hospital. She does go by the name Alicja. At any rate, she becomes a reluctant cause célèbre with the medical profession. Her story appears in all the newspapers and magazines. Speculation runs rampant in typical tabloid fashion. She has spoken only a handful of words and seems utterly disinterested in finding out about her past and is aggresively resistant to all efforts to help her recover her past.
Film Still from Fugue © DEKANALOG
After she is interviewed on a popular television program, word is received that she has been identified by her father. It turns out that she has been missing for two years. Thus begins another mystery. Why did no one make an effort to find her at that time? She has a husband and an adorable son. When the professionals who have been working with her and caring for her no longer have the authority to take care of her they have no choice to take her to her family. Her reception is decidedly mixed. The only one who unreservedly opens his heart to her is her father. Her mother is wary. Her husband is hurt and aggrieved by her desertion. Her son is totally spooked by this person who does not resemble his mother.
Film Still from Fugue © DEKANALOG
The resolution of the reunion is subtle, fascinating and scratchy, with moments of clarity and specificity coming out of the blue, while other memories seep in more gently. It is both cruel, tender and authentic. The transitions are revealed in such spare and beautifully simple episodes. There is so little dialogue that one is engaged in a more cerebral way than the usual film experience provokes. This will linger in the mind.
Film Still from Fugue © DEKANALOG
