Review of the film Perinbaba and two worlds by Juraj Jakubisk

Now, after years of preparations and delays, comes the sequel. Director and screenwriter Juraj Jakubisko did not live to see the premiere of his latest work, Perinbaba a two worlds, which has been showing in cinemas since Thursday. He died this year at the age of 84.

His latest opus was revealing from the start and also shows great ambitions on screen. The detailed artistic concept, the narrative decorations, the digitally animated star of the Italian film Giulietta Masina in the role of Perinbaba… but the picture also immediately shows that its completion must have resembled a journey through a dark forest without any compass or map.

The original author of the music, Ondřej Soukup, claimed that there were around 200 versions of the cut. And this is unfortunately evident in the story that follows the journey of the hero Lukáš to the mythical land of plenty.

The original Perinbaba was at heart a simple fairy tale about a fearless boy named Jacob who was taken in by Perinbaba, a powerful being who oversees the weather. And she protected him not only from Zubata and her scythe, but also from the pitfalls of the human world. Including things like love. But you can’t just prevent it.

The film from 1985 relied on the unbridled energy and imagination of the creator, who not only cast the star of Federico Fellini’s films in the main role, but also managed to get a similar dreamlike atmosphere to the Italian master’s work in an otherwise childish work – premiered at the prestigious festival in Venice.

The very first scene, in which the comedians’ set gets stuck in the snow, turns into an almost hellish scene thanks to close-up shots, fast editing and sound work. Which, after all, we can also see in the introduction of the second film, which summarizes the plot of “one” in a short summary.

The sequel looks all the more painful, drowning in rather genderless digital tricks from the first moments. The son of Jakub from the original film Lukáš embarks on a journey during which he experiences all kinds of escapades, without it being too clear what and why is happening to him.

With an inseparable canine companion, he gets to the prison where he awaits execution, becomes involved with a magnificent revelry, visits the kingdom from which all the women have disappeared. In reality, however, Lukáš does not travel, he simply appears in new and new places, into which he is thrown without context.

Due to one final revelation, which should not be revealed, but which seems to have fallen out of the manual How to never punctuate a movie, the explanation is offered that it is supposed to be a capture of some kind of dream “logic”. Unfortunately, it’s more like the random jumping of a character who is thrown into more and more locations in some not-so-successful computer adventure game. And together with the viewer, they have no idea what to do in them.

And then there’s the dog. His barking will probably go down in the pantheon of the most annoying movie “sidekicks”, as the protagonist’s sidekicks are called in American, right next to the sneaking alien Jar Jar Binkse from the first episode of Star Wars. Unfortunately, the footage of this furry creature is the only constant in the work, which feels like the torso of the intended film at best.

The picture from Perinbaba and two worlds shows Valéria Frištik in the role of Lucia. | Photo: Etiquette film

Sometimes a moment flashes by when a pinch of the author’s imagination is awakened, there is a nice, although ultimately rather unused idea with a moving city. Sometimes a juggler and a storyteller, performed by the singer Dan Nekonečný, flash across the screen. Even he did not live to see the premiere, but his sonorous vibrating voice can be just as infectious as in his performances.

But that voice and visual expression also slipped into self-parody in the last period of the singer’s work. And as if he was a reminder here too, that not every sincere effort to stir up the imagination has to lead to a successful goal.

It is sad to get one’s hands on the work of a once great creator, with whom it is not clear how much he himself participated in the final form, about whom he can no longer comment and about whom it is difficult to suppress embarrassment.

On the one hand, there are scenes that resemble a cheap TV fairy tale, on the other hand, repulsive digital tentacles as the antithesis of Jakubiska’s earlier “handmade” poetics. And like a mantra, something about the land of abundance is shouted here, without it being clear why and for what purpose the hero is traveling. Immediately the dog barks again.

New Perinbaba is better than Jakubisk’s film After intercourse from 2004. However, this is one of the few positives that can be attributed to her address. In addition, the viewer has a comparison with the original fairy tale. And in it, the news turns out to be tragic.

Juraj Jakubisko always allowed himself to be carried away by free associations. He wasn’t building any coherent worlds. But Perinbaba and two worlds is so overcrowded with motifs, ideas and locations, between which there are no relationships, that this pelmel interwoven with overwrought performances teeters on the edge of bearability.

Above all, the film does not work as a fairy tale at all. It is not clear what values ​​the heroes profess, Lukáš is actually a significant part of the film’s villain, who ended up in prison for his misdeeds, but the given deeds are not thematized here in any way. And then it all ends with love, which somehow happened by mistake, but that doesn’t redeem the title.

It was supposed to be a celebration of the ability to dream. But the effect is the opposite, the viewer is constantly pinching himself in the face to see if he is missing the whole thing. Because he would rather wake up.