Happiness is a piece product, there is no collective. . . The Berlinale is over, but not yet released. After reading various ratings of the last Berlin Film Festival in the press, I thought about my list of favorite films. Despite the huge amount seen, the killer ten did not work. But there are a sure three films, two of which I watched twice, the third did not have time to watch again, since I first saw it on the last day of the festival at the last session. As always, Booley Lanners – Belgian or as he calls himself “Flemish” director with the new film “First, Last” pleased. An incredibly touching parable was shown by Eugene Greene – “Son of Joseph”. These two directors are well known to the festival audience and have received awards at international festivals. The third director, Joaquin del Paso, showed his first feature-length film Maquinaria Panamericana and I want to say a little bit about it.
Repetitive loud metallic sound. The steel bar ends up hitting the asphalt. Credits.
Friday. Morning. People rush to work - Maquinaria Panamericana heavy construction machinery repair plant (MAPA). Everything suits everyone: a convenient location near the airport of Mexico City, a generous boss - Don Alejandro, spacious office space and prestigious work in a company with long traditions. While people are celebrating at the entrance factory, the repeater sounds: "This is the final day - Friday." Good morning, MAPSA. Have a good day, everyone. And remember, today is the first day of your remaining life. Make this day great. Don’t let this day end without personal growth and happiness. Under such a "transurfing of reality," from factory management, employees begin their normal working day. The serene music from the screen creates a feeling that the staff of the plant “works” comfortably, they like to spend time together, joke, communicate, thus maintaining a healthy spirit in the team. The director's secretary paints a palm tree on his nails, the commercial department celebrates the employee's birthday, and all this to the sounds of a constantly ringing phone. In order not to be distracted by calls, employees transfer them to each other via internal communication, until the latter picks up the phone. The question posed in the conversation is confusing, which can only be clarified by the director, who, as soon as it turns out, died inappropriately in his office from a heart attack. From this shocking news collapses the whole carefree atmosphere of fun. After all, in essence, this means that the company is bankrupt, since the suddenly deceased director - Don Alejandro in recent years financed production and paid wages out of his own pocket, but in reality, only old exhibition booklets remained from the former greatness of the company. Sometimes the future comes without notice. The staff is not ready for the new tests, they know that there is poverty outside the gates of the plant, all the employees are waiting for and in fear of the unknown, they decide not to tell anyone about the death of their boss, close the gates, and under pain of death, not to let anyone out of the territory until a collective solution is found. In the minds of people confusion, helplessness, fear. The neighbourhood of the airport, a symbol of change, gives a special meaning to the situation. For many years, having worked in a company where the economy was replaced by transurfing, emphasis was placed on mysticism and a general unsupported faith in the future, the factory workers decide to organize a rally at which they give all the powers to a scoundrel pursuing only their own selfish goals. From the foot of an excavator that has become a makeshift podium, a manager who reads a greeting to a repeater in the morning and has already contributed to the collapse of the company reports “I received a message from above that we will keep the company.” He promises to develop a plan to save the plant, as a result of which everyone will become the “architect of fate not only for his own, but for the whole company.” There is talk of justice and a “new democracy” for workers. Then the situation becomes surreal and the tragedy turns into a farce. In anticipation of miraculous salvation, the team decides to mark the beginning of a “new era”. In view of the inability to leave the territory to buy alcohol, they invent a drink where the main ingredient is gasoline, which they cleverly mix in a huge vat with various flavorings. In the evening, the holiday is in full swing, the asphalt layer crushes computers and other office equipment, the wind drives through the territory of paper from accounting, the worker at the wheel of the excavator, trying to dig a hole to hide the director’s body, damages the pipe supplying water to the plant and instead of the grave turns into a bath in which happy “architects” bathe. On the territory of the plant are huge yellow excavators, destroying everything in its path. In the cabins of cranes and graders, yesterday’s factory workers indulge in love and libation. In the midst of the holiday, the only sane employee - the guard of the plant, starts a fight with the new director and seeks public recognition of his selfish plans. Morning. Silence. Famously walking factory workers sleep in the most unexpected places, on the table of the former director, in the warehouse putting tools under the head, in the office, in tractors, in excavators, sleeping throughout the plant. A security guard calls an ambulance to pick up the former director's body. The gates are open, the orderlies take the body and leave, the factory workers who woke up stand in the gate and look at the ambulance. The former security guard leaves after the ambulance. Factories close the gate and return to the territory. The inscription on the gate of Maquinaria Panamericana. Curtain.
Although very funny, it is actually a dark and damning satire about eternal problems. The director shows that these problems are insurmountable, and the happiness that the filmmaker talks about at the beginning of the film cannot be achieved even after the workers have gained visible freedom of action. The result is inevitable chaos. Wonderful movie.
10 out of 10