Both Films: ***1/2
In the film, The Field of Magic, a
group of people eek out a living for themselves on the literal margins of
society. Forging for food in the Buda Forest of Lithuania and collecting scrap
metal for money from a nearby dump, they return to their self-built shacks at
the end of the day, and celebrate the small things in life. It may not be how
you’d want to live your life, but you’ll be darned if they don’t live their
lives with dignity and resolve. It’s an oddly empowering film to say the least.
Director Mindaugas Survila spent four years
visiting these people, collecting their stories, chronicling their lives and
seeing how they lived. Survila’s style is kind of a fly on the wall, and with a
couple of exceptions he just records things as they happen. He also lets the
people go about their lives, never probing them about how they ended up here,
and why they stay. The lack of the why actually doesn’t bother you; filming
somebody going about their life in Toronto, you may
not necessarily ask why they’re there after all…
The Field of Magic shirks a very crisp and digital look for something more akin to a
grittier video feel. That may come from the technical demands of where Survila
was shooting, but at the same time it suits the film. It’s like a time capsule
of a bygone age, a lifestyle long gone. Sadly, that’s not too far from the
truth, but watching The Field of Magic you at least get to see, feel and
understand a piece of an unusual world that may not appeal to many, but you’ll
be darned if these people don’t live with some kind of grace.
Speaking of days gone by, Home Turf takes
us to County Kerry, Ireland and the tradition of turf cutting. The cutting and drying of turf
provides fuel for the fire, literally, in the Irish winter, and it’s been done
in County Kerry for over 100 year, but as these things go, it’s a dying tradition.
In just 14 minutes, Ross Whitaker expertly takes us through the turf season,
and shows us the hard work and rewards for these men keeping an old way of life
alive in spite of the odds.
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