WAITING ROOM

Time is fluid. It fills the space in which the seven protagonists move, in which they wait, for something, for someone, for nothing. For life to begin, or for that moment that one might bid to stick around a bit longer. Palo Korec's film skirts the dividing line between documentary film and fiction. He places his main characters in a symbolically charged setting by having them orbit the waiting room of his title in the Bratislava central train station as if it were a centre of gravity. With the help of Ján Meliš' poetic camera lens, their waiting is transformed into a libidinous waste of time, a defiant self-abandonment to the moment, an attitude of noncompliance towards the demands of everyday life. With its impressive feel for detail and fleeting moments, the film manages to portray its casually sketched characters so sensually and precisely that we can convince ourselves that we know their life stories. In their passivity and aimless desire, they embody a diffuse feeling of loss that can’t be soothed.