Foreshadowing the Past
The most harrowing imagery in the film for most people will likely be the sequence when violent Bulgarian nationalists are metaphorically goose-stepping their way back through time to replicate the dangerous origins of the darkest chapter of 20th century European history. They attack the immigrants who look to the Bulgarian police for assistance only to watch as the police actually defend their fascist countrymen. It is portrait of a time hiccup: it seems like something out of the distant past while at the same time seeming corrosively pregnant with the inexplicably authentic possibilities which lie waiting in the unknown future of our own dark times.
Claustrophobic Composition
The film was famously shot with cell phone cameras belonging to the family. As a result, most of the composition of scenes are tightly framed with limited points of reference and an absence of contextuality relative to setting and place. This serves as imagery which underscores the transient nature of migrant refugees knowing only where they don’t want to wind up but having no idea where they will. Shot over the course of their three year struggle, there is little opportunity to ground the subjects in a specific time or place; identifying titles on the screen must be accepted at their word as for most viewers they could any number of other places and we’d be none the wiser.
Boredom
The story being told in this documentary has all the elements of a nail-biting dramatic adventure if told as fiction or a recreation of a true story using actors cast as the principles. This is the difference between documenting real life as it happens and taking that very same true and making a feature presentation: all the boring parts, hopefully anyway, judiciously edited out. But a three year run to find sanctuary cannot help but provides long interminable stretches of boredom and this realty is primarily centered upon the perspective young Nargis through imagery focusing on her as the center of attention looking out windows at seemingly never-ending stretches of topographical nothingness. For a young girl, any concept of excitement or adventure stands to be washed away in rather quick fashion.
Made Footage
The documentary has all the hallmarks of a “found footage” movie. The central problem associated with many found footage films is that most inevitably reach a point at which the ability to suspend disbelief is pushed to the limit. For example, why bother trying to film your escape from a ravenous monster of some sort when your ability to escape would be significantly improved simply focusing on the escape rather than documenting it. There are certain points in the film when that question rises and in most cases, sure enough, that is the point at which the cameras are turned off and titles appear on screen to fill in the gaps. The imagery is thus composed of what is not shown rather than what is and is speaks to the irrefutable truth that even in a documentary, reality is not a movie.
