PSIFF 2018 Day Three

Day Three was a great day for me. A sprightly biopic about Michalina Wisłocka, the Polish doctor who revolutionized the sexual life of her country in the middle of the communist regime. Her message: the most important thing in a relationship is understanding and exploring each other’s needs.The Art of Loving, an adaptation of Michalina Wisłocka’s biography, is both a tale about her and about the taboo topic that is Polish sexuality. Humorous and well-acted, the film is well worth watching.

In her version of Michalina Wisłocka’s biography, Maria Sadowska chooses to talk about sex without exaggeration, shy blushing or provocative intent. She does not judge her characters, or moralise over their sometimes questionable choices. In The Art of Loving, sex is neither good nor bad, it’s just a part of everyday life. The story of the famous Polish gynaecologist and sexologist, whose lifestyle guidebook The Art of Loving sold over 7 million copies in the 1970s, is a straightforward story about a person whose body and soul are connected into one, indivisible whole.

We can see Wisłock in a few distant moments in her life throughout the film: her childhood, times of war, medical studies, and eventually – the 1960s and 70s, when she tries to revolutionise Polish sexology. By looking at both the past and the future of their heroine, the creators of the movie try to paint her as a kind of secular saint – a brave, charismatic woman, who had to take on the patriarchal reality of Polish People’s Republic for the benefit of her patients, and paid for her choices with her ruined private life.

In The Art of Loving all aforementioned rules seem to be satisfied – there is an intriguing hero, interesting secondary characters, there is a goal and difficulties to overcome in order to reach it. However, with time we get disengaged from the story. That is because we know how the story ends from the beginning, as the most important struggle in the film is whether Wisłocka will manage to publish her book.

The movie of the festival should be “The Insult“, by far the best movie of the fest todate. In today’s Beirut, an insult blown out of proportions finds Toni, a Lebanese Christian, and Yasser, a Palestinian refugee, in court. From secret wounds to traumatic revelations, the media circus surrounding the case puts Lebanon through a social explosion, forcing Toni and Yasser to reconsider their lives and prejudices

Conceived as a classic story of how a not-so-simple insult can escalate into a nationwide crisis, the film pits a belligerent Lebanese Christian mechanic with a traumatic past against an older Palestinian Muslim still unable to quietly suffer the ever-present verbal and institutional barbs against his dignity. The character of Tony Hanna exudes such an intense level of anger that there’s barely any nuance at all. First seen gloating at a political rally of the Christian right, Tony owns a car repair garage, and he and his wife Shirine are expecting a baby girl. Like most of Beirut, his street is undergoing construction and repairs, but when Palestinian foreman Yasser asks Tony to let him correct the illegal drain pipe on his terrace, he gets the door slammed in his face. Yasser does it anyway from the outside, so Tony smashes the new pipe.

To ease the tension and get the work finished, Yasser’s boss insists he apologize, but when he arrives at the garage, Tony is blasting Bachir Gemayel’s nasty anti-Palestinian talk. Unable to speak, the foreman fails to apologize, upon which Tony yells, “I wish Ariel Sharon wiped you all out.” Yasser punches Tony hard, breaking a couple of ribs, and the wheels are set in motion for a legal showdown.

At first, neither man bothers to get a lawyer, but when the judge throws the case out, things reach another level. Tony engages prominent prosecutor Wajdi Wehbe, mouthpiece for the Christian establishment, while greenhorn counsellor Nadine offers her services to Yasser. Wajdi is the ruthless lawyer ready to exploit tensions, Nadine is the righteous attorney with a novice’s lack of confidence, and oh yes, they’re father and daughter — not the most original twist in the playbook. It exposes tensions in Lebanon where Palestinian are a substantial minority.