O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization

Nothing for the post-apocalyptic action junkie but for those who like a story with some depth. Sadly, I had to watch a bad quality copy on YouTube, luckily that one got subtitles. Good if you are on the look out for something that provides a dystopian story that does not follow the path of Mad Max and its countless clones, but tries to give us a more realistic impression on a world after total mayhem. Recommended if you like movies a la The Day After, Thread etc.

I like Polish films, I've seen a lot, all of Andrzej Wajda's films, all of Polanski's, some of Jerzy Skolimowski's, some of Andrzej Zulawski's, some of Krzysztof Kieslowski's, some of Krzysztof Zanussi's, etc. They are not easy to digest, just as this "O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization" is not (the meaning of "O-Bi, O-Ba" is not clear at all). It is the first film made by director Piotr Szulkin that I have seen. I saw Jerzy Stuhr in the very special "Sexmission" (1984) and in "A Year of the Quiet Sun" (1984). I saw the beautiful Krystyna Janda in "Man of Iron" (1981), "Mephisto" (1981), "The Conductor" (1980), "Man of Marble" (1977). Another well-known name is Leon Niemczyk, probably the most prolific Polish actor of all time (325 films) seen by me in many, the most famous being "Knife in the Water" (1962). OK, about the movie now: I'm not going to narrate it like many do. I'll just say that it's worth seeing, even though it's just talk in a closed space, an underground bunker (where, strange situation, after the nuclear war, there is electricity, there are neon lights everywhere). The fact that it is filmed a lot in motion by the talented Witold Sobocinski, mitigates the phenomenon of claustrophobia.

A dystopian post-nuclear war society survives with enormous difficulties, while waiting for a miraculous rescue.

A dark but interesting vision, reminiscent of some comics from the 80s, such as Heavy Metal, of a post-nuclear future, condemned to crime and the fight for survival.

The faith of many and the madness of others is opposed to the skeptical lucidity of the elites, who seek an unlikely solution for an almost impossible survival.

Die now or live another day? It seems to be the essential question posed to these survivors, increasingly tired of their fortune.

It certainly deserves to be seen, especially by fans of dystopian and post-apocalyptic themes.

Delving deep into the dusty and long abandonded vaults of b-cinema in search of lost gems always leaves me with a bittersweet taste. On one hand the discovery of unexpected gems where no one would think them possible is a rewarding experience. On the other hand though it makes one wonder how many of these remarkable low-budget oddities, personal love affairs of directors never quite famous and now all but forgotten, have almost forever slipped from memory?

In any case what we have here is a little post-apocalyptic gem from Poland that is really better than it has any right to. The dystopian near future of O-BI, O-BA finds a group of survivors of the nuclear war that ravaged the Earth inhabiting an underworld concrete bunker and biding their time as they wait for the mysterious Ark, an air ship of some kind that will come and save them. The Ark proves to be an elaborate hoax, carefully designed to give hope to the malnourished and desperate denizens of the bunker, while in the meantime the dome that separates their miserable existence from the nuclear winter outside is slowly caving in.

What first striked me about the movie is the design of the bunker and the depiction of the survivors. The survivors are gaunt, filthy and terrible-looking penitents, dressed in rags and aimlessly wandering the neon-lit halls of the bunker like automatons. The bunker is a rundown, seedy place, with bright neon lights peering from all sides like the eyes of malignant beasts.

On one hand it is a slightly 80's depiction of the dystopian future but the movie never stoops down to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines biting political satire with the bleak outlook of a world with no future, black comedy with barbs on apathy, religion and power. The survivors, for example, are fed some kind of flour dropping from a tube that hovers in the air - later on we discover the food supervisor uses books and the Bible itself as filler for this meagre meal. There are many such short symbolic touches, perhaps not life-changing or faith-restoring, yet playful, clever and inspired.

One thing is for sure; O-BI, O-BA is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi schlock. It overcomes its modest budget with creativity and has genuine artistic aspirations both from a writing and directing perspective. My opinion is that it should have been filmed in black and white instead of colour though. The director uses atmospheric light and shadow to great effect and it would have registered even better in stark black and white. The blue-green neon on the other hand outstays its welcome after a while. Just a minor gripe in an otherwise solid b-movie with its heart set in all the right places.

Imagine a less bleak THE ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) being injected with the satire and humour of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're getting there. See it if you can find it.

O-bi O-ba, through the dystopian Illustrating of a micro-society set in an underground dungeon after a nuclear holocaust, is surprisingly perfect. The story follows a wandering hero through different landscapes that dominate each of the levels of the refuge.

It was released in 1985, the same year as another, quite similar film: Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Perhaps something was in the air over all of Europe at the time, something moving freely and without heed of the iron curtain, something grotesque enough to bend men's minds to craft images like this one:

With a budget that we can easily guess very limited, produced in a country of the communist bloc only a few years before the collapse of the USSR, the Polish director Piotr Szulkin has succeeded beyond all these constraints to create a minimalist yet coherent and very immersive science-fiction universe. The film offers a dark and hopeless atmosphere, in an oppressive environment, here people cling on a belief, of a prophecy - the Ark. Its a metaphorical bomb all around with many possible interpretations.

Alongside Soft, the protagonist, we are gradually discovering the different layers constituting the lie, this mirage which maintains order in this society. Under these conditions, a handful of men is enough to keep the control mechanisms operational, and work to ensure that they remain so once the Dome is shattered, one step ahead of its inhabitants, obsessed with their survival and their salvation. The Dome and the Ark, the Soviet grip and the mirage of the West, is only one among many interpretations that can be found inO-bi, O-ba, political, religious or emotional. There remains a particularly desperate look on the enslaving power of belief, on the predisposition of some to embrace it and on the will of others to exploit it.