Following its central character in a nightmarish strange castle, Sergey Loznitsa’s A GENTLE WOMAN could be easily associated with Kafka’s works, but it is not Kafkesque at all. In his new film, Loznitsa steps into a new world. Portraying an alienated woman, stepping into this new world, he takes a semi-Bunuelian turn to focus on the nightmare wittily. So the film playfully and funnily portrays all the characters surrounding the gentle woman in the ongoing, horrible dream – a nightmare formed out of the dark world of the shadows and in the broad daylight.

At first, she is portrayed in full peace and harmony with the nature when there is no other human being around. But when she attempts once again to take a break and take a package to her husband in a far, faraway prison, she turns into a speechless alien in a pathetic circus. The clowns are the officers examining the objects inside the boxes both in the station and the prison, the convicted behind the bars and the people living all around the prison – however they would be able to turn into wild beasts whenever there is no one else around but the gentle woman. When she is not allowed to deliver the package to her husband, she tries anything decent to get this little chance. When there is no way, she is obliged to begin a silent protest. When she finds out she is living her own nightmares, she surrenders to the other peoples’ obsessions.

In “Exercice du Scénario” (by Jean-Claude Carrière and Pascal Bonitzer), only one rule is set for screenwriting: never show that everything happened is just the dream of a character. But then, Carrière remembers that he had done it in Bunuel’s LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE and it had proved to work out well. In A GENTLE WOMAN, Loznitsa does the same thing to show how the heroine comes to know that she is destined to follow the others’ wills and obsessions. This way Loznitsa builds up a woman character living simply, entering a patriarchal world, attempting to observe her rights and meaning of freedom eventually and surrendering to misuse and abuse.

To proceed with this, Loznitsa sets out on a personal journey into the world of imagery. Portraying the woman in the nature with auteuristic flavor, in the station and prison with a satirical approach to bureaucracy, in the unknown town with its existential references and in the wild circus of the nightmare, Loznitsa succeeds to create a group portrait with the gentle lady whenever the other people are involved. After the opening in the way to the cottage, the film reflects her difference with the others as well as her inability to connect to the surroundings in non-action of the silent lady. In Lozanitsa’a visual feast, the words weaken the film – the words that make the film too long and the final nightmare too far.

K.