As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Franklin said this in the midst of a squabble about taxes between the Penn family and the elected legislature of Pennsylvania. But it has remained a guiding principle for those who are concerned with freedom. The sentiment seems to make perfect sense to anyone reading it from the safety of their armchair. But if the principle were really tested? How much would we really be willing to pay or give up for the sake of freedom? This is question at the heart of Óskar Kristinn Vignisson’s short, Free Men, which is being screened at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
The film, which could plausibly be called a comedy of errors, or a slightly demented buddy movie, follows two men who work at a fish processing plant in Denmark. Their work is gory and mundane. But while they’re on a break a man named Lars arrives to offer them a proposition. There’s a problem with the ‘hotel’ where the workers live. Little do the men know that accepting Lars’ offer will take them down a road that will test their mettle and their personal convictions like nothing else ever has.
Lars asks them to fix a toilet that is overflowing. This, believe it or not, is the premise of the nearly 30 minute film. The toilet is in a basement that houses 80 Indian workers, and it is the only toilet. This is not an arbitrary problem. In fact, the toilet and the horrible overcrowded basement speak directly to the film’s central theme. Are these men free? These Indians (I believe) have come from far away for work, and are now treated by the boss man as if they were indentured servants. Anyone who has ever worked in Persian Gulf states like Qatar or Dubai will be very familiar with this situation: Indians arrive for work, but must surrender their passports and are not allowed to leave, or do much of anything, without their employers permission. They live in difficult circumstances that are essentially a form of slavery.
And so, our heroes arrive to fix the toilet and help out these hapless workers. There’s water all over the floor and it’s…not clean. Without revealing any more of the plot than necessary, it is important to note than the contents of the toilet are also not arbitrary. It is an amusing symbol, but it is significant. Is it the sign of a free man that he will not clean up another man’s feces? We often say of a free spirited person that they will not take any crap from anyone. And this is the real question here: will our heroes take this crap?
It turns out that one of the main characters really wants to be free at any cost and will not take any crap. He has ideas for the future. And when pressed, he shows that he is willing to put everything on the line not to be enslaved. His buddy, on the other hand, is less imaginative and is not willing to rock the boat. He will, in short, take crap. There are brilliant little touches here. Pay attention to who gets locked in where and why.
We could fairly call this film a comedy. But there are also thrilling elements. And, despite its patently ridiculous premise, this really is a thought provoking work of art. While watching, I wished I could linger on many of the shots. Many of the images would have made fantastic still photographs. The two men leaning on a dumpster on a barred shore, the pile of fish heads, the machines in the fish processing plant. All of these are shot with the eye of a master photographer. Other scenes are similarly fascinating, despite the inherent drabness of the surroundings. The men, for example, end up at a bleak and depressing bar where they drink unidentifiable orange drinks and plan for the future, and the whole scene is visually stunning.
On the whole, this is a brilliant, funny and thoughtful film. It appears to be one of Óskar Kristinn Vignisson’s first projects, but it has all the hallmarks of a promising career. And we at Universal Cinema will be watching closely.
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.