Lyuksemburh, Lyuksemburh

A film about two brothers whose lives are shaken by several events, including the unintentional serious injury of an elderly lady and the hospitalisation of their dying father somewhere in faraway Luxembourg. The tone of the film shifts vaguely between serious social drama and comedy rich with scenes and dialogue abounding with black humour. The narrative is similarly unfocused, as it initiates minor storylines and then abandons them, seemingly without leading to anything in particular. However, the ending brings the brothers’ journey to Luxembourg and offers a few pleasingly constructed twists, so the film ultimately redeems itself with verbal humour together with a series of fateful moments full of the ironies of life. (2023.07.03)

Just as Antonio Lukich dealt with his relationship with his mother in his previous film, this time he comes to terms with his father. Despite the personal elements, however, this is not an autobiographical treatise, but rather a universal tragicomic, absurdist road movie in which the preparation for the journey plays a more essential role than the journey itself. It may seem that the whole narrative is disjointed and incoherent, but where some see incoherence, others see the bitter absurdity of everyday life, full of burdens placed on them from above in the manner of Job and by those around them in the manner of Kafka, but also by themselves due to their own stupidity and self-centredness. Lukich shows all of the above as tragedy and comedy in equal measure. The specific peripeteias not only tell the story of the twins, but also illustrate the paradoxes of Eastern European history in general terms, not only the major historical paradoxes, but primarily the minor personal ones. As a result, Lukich’s coming to terms with the myth of his own father mirrors the whole region’s need to face its own past – not necessarily to get all of the answers from it, but simply to confront it, because only then is it possible to finally move on. (2023.07.05)