CPH:DOX - Meanwhile on Earth
CPH:DOX If there was an award for the biggest troll movie on this planet, Carl Olsson's Meanwhile on Earth would be a great runner-up to Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez's 2013 documentary Manakamana.
One doesn't have to look deep into the nature of the two films to derive how easily they laugh at their audience by showcasing an antithetical presentation that frustrates the viewer by betraying their general expectations that they keep for their viewing experience. Instead of showing any fantastical, comical, or even interesting features of mundanity, the films decide to show the disjointed scenarios that in no shape or form contribute to the so-called "bigger picture".
However, where Meanwhile on Earth differs from Manakamana (to a certain extent) is that unlike the later feature that indulges unashamedly itself into its aimlessness, this feature has a goal behind its showcasing of the boring mundane. The goal is that of representing the life of those who have become ever so familiar with the event of death, that they have managed to continue living despite the nature of their job.
Every person showcased in this feature represents some aspect of a funeral ceremony for whom death is a daily job. From the morticians to the singers, to casket drivers to even people incinerating the death or digging hole for a grave. Each one of them isn't a depressed maniac who goes into deep existentialism whenever a dead body arrives and starts monologuing like a Carson Clay feature. They are just normal people who made peace with the fact that their daily life revolves around digging, burning, arranging, and signing for a deaf person.
One cannot help but laugh at how intentionally uninteresting this feature decides to be. Absolutely nothing happens throughout the film, and despite that, there are multiple points in the feature where because of its nothingness the viewer starts to laugh, as the film betrays the prejudice of interest that in a deeper sense of though, has been the mundanity of filmmaking itself.
However, its intentionality towards boredom shouldn't be correlated with laziness. The technical aspects of the features are marvelous for its budget, and the aspects of shots utilized to show mundanity could easily be utilized for an interesting concept. For instance, there is a particular tracking shot that reminiscence of the tracking shots of 2001: A Space Oddity and The Tree of Life. The events may vary, but the effect is the same. Olsson and his team manage to generate the same awe from a mundane hospital ward that Kubrick did with a giant rotating space room. There is also a mundane scene of an old man drinking a coffee, where the utilization of the still shot is almost nostalgic to great still shot moments found in classics like Memories Of Murder, Mirror, and A Clockwork Orange. With the utilization of such cinematographical effects for such daily chores, the film unintentionally — or judging by the nature of the film, intentionally — becomes an educational lesson for aspiring filmmakers on how they could apply the same awe and wonder to the things they see on a daily basis.
It is clear that Meanwhile On Earth is a film for a niche audience, but such niches don't come into factor because of the usual suspects like demographic or genre. Instead, its niches arrive from one's understandability on the inside joke and message upon which the entire film has been built upon. Anyone who gets either of those will appreciate the film for humorous or humanly execution of induced boredom into the feature and anyone who doesn't get either, will found themselves perplexed on the existence of the film and their decision to watch. Due to this unique experience into film viewing where a niche is determined by the watching experience of the film and not the components of it, Meanwhile On Earth demands at least one view from anyone who finds the aforementioned concept even sparsely interesting.