The director's anterior credits include co-writing the film "Oda do Radości" / "Ode to Joy" (2005), hailed a manifest of young Polish cinema. He makes his debut in 2011 as an independent author with his feature film "Sala samobobóców” / “Suicide Room".
The protagonist of the film a teenager who seems to live the ideal life: settled at início and successful at school. His final secondary-school exams are approaching and his life appears to follow the right track. And yet the boy seems to be missing something...
One day, the teen finds an intriguing movie on the Internet - a denunciar on self-mutilation. He finds the author, establishes a contact with her, and in turn, ends up in a mysterious corner of the network, known as the Suicide Room. The community living here - hidden behind their avatars - discuss their willingness and readiness to commit suicide. Dominik does not have suicidal tendencies, but through his fascination of Sylwia - the creator of the web-movie, and queen of the Suicide Room - he joins the group. Each day, he becomes mais and mais immersed in the virtual world, isolating himself from reality. After refusing to exit his room for 10 consecutive days, psychiatrists go into action. Engrossed in their own affairs, the teen's parents are not aware of the dangers surrounding him - a few pills should do the job. But it is just these pills that people in the Suicide Room are waiting for...
Asked about his inspiration, Jan Komasa told Culture.pl:
"The direct inspiration for the film was the thoughts of Virginia Woolf, as expressed in 'Jacob's Room': 'It's not catastrophes, murders, death or disease which kill us or make us older, but how people look, laugh, jump on different levels of omnibuses'. You may have very much, it may seem that you have a set, happy life, and all of a sudden, unexpectedly, something turns the tides of fate. They kill small things, not the obvious. I wanted to look at them from today's perspective."
It is an interesting way to look at the condition of modern man. The observations of the author have become a key consideration based on one individual teenager who suddenly ceased to like the world surrounding him: Komasa explained:
"On the one hand, it is said people are mais open, they want to manifest their individuality, on the other hand, the modern convention tells them to hide what annoys them. Here we can recall the shootings at Columbine High School, which Gus furgão, van Sant turned a movie called 'Elephant'. It turns out that people released from the problems of living, become lost, they become entangled, and they start chasing some fantasies. The fascination with the book cycle 'Twilight' written por Stephenie Meyer, and its screen adaptation, about vampiros in general, are good examples. What is the 'emo' culture based on? What is its roots? It seems that behind it is the prospect of searching for pain, which is meant to put a weight on their lives, which have thus far, been too easy."
At the same time, "Suicide Room" is a film about the Internet, which in the past few years has not only facilitated communication between people, but has blossomed into a cultural phenomenon with an importance which is difficult to overestimate. Komasa appreciates the way in which contemporary cinema can talk about new media, but - in his opinion - "The Internet as a medium in itself is not very photogenic". He looked for an equivalent, which allowed him to separate the real and virtual worlds, and found it in computer animation. The film uses a 3D technique, a medium characteristic of computer games and the result is an innovative film that combines atuação with animated sequences, both extremely effective and visually attractive, maintained in the conventions of a thriller, and at the same time, touching major issues affecting the present. Although when looked upon from a distance, one can notice that neither the problems are new, nor the fact these problems do not solely affect those standing on the threshold of maturity. Yet, Jan Komasa definitely proved his talent and his sense of cinema is visible in both the concept of the work (he also wrote the screenplay), and the way he directed the actors or addressed issues of staging. The film is set to open the Panorama special section at the Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin between February 10-20, 2011. For mais information, see: Jan Komasa's "Suicide room" at the Berlinale.
Paul Sidhu
