The Year Before the War – Gads pirms kara (2021)

Directed by: Davis Simanis | 95 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Petr Buchta, Lauris Dzelzitis, Dace Eversa, Gints Gravelis, Girts Kesteris, Inga Silina

A group of workmen cut blocks of ice from a frozen lake. A little further on, a queer figure talks to a dead fish trapped in a block of ice. According to him, the fish would know the secret of death. Obsessed with this knowledge, he runs towards the workmen and jumps through the hole into the icy water. In the distance we now see a figure approaching. It’s Hans, the anti-hero from ‘The Year Before the War’ (2021). And despite the fact that he could not possibly have heard the words of the queer figure, that fascination with death has spread to him.

Hans could have walked right out of a Franz Kafka story. He is a plaything of fate, wandering in a world he does not understand, surrounded by numerous bizarre figures who seem to be privy to the secrets of life. He is also reminiscent of the character of Carl Joseph Von Trotta from ‘Radetzkymars’ by Joseph Roth. Also in ‘The Year Before the War’ we see a lonely young man in a rapidly changing world on the eve of the First World War, fruitlessly searching for meaning. Mocked by his father for never having fought in a war and therefore not knowing what it is to kill, he travels in the footsteps of anarchists and socialists through 1913 Europe in search of a cause to fight for.

It’s a classic theme that isn’t performed very originally in ‘The Year Before the War’. Visually everything is in tip-top shape. The image of the time calls for grainy, high-contrast black-and-white, and a contrast between oppressive, dingy urban decors and wonderful, fresh natural landscapes.

But the story leaves much to be desired. Hans encounters a multitude of historical figures who are all equally flat and absurd, as if they have walked out of a Monty Python skit. Kafka, Trotsky, Hitler, Stalin, et cetera, they all pass by. A larger role is reserved for Freud and Lenin as crazy giggling, sardonic clowns. Lenin is literally a devil, who incites Hans to carry out all kinds of attacks in the European capitals in the name of socialism. And so ‘The Year Before the War’ is a kind of exposé of early twentieth century historical events and systems of thought (Oedipus complex!). A rather ostentatious existential crisis wrapped in a nasty dream story.