The Fire Will Not Die Out
Sara Joksimović
"The Museum of Revolution" is a 2021 film directed and written by Srđan Keča. This film received several awards, notably the "Heart of Sarajevo" for Best Documentary at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The idea itself emerged in 2015 when "The Museum of Revolution" was a video installation presented at the Berlin Film Festival. By following the daily lives of three heroines living in the Museum of Revolution, not to preserve exhibits, but themselves, Keča raises questions about today's social circumstances, the truth we turn a blind eye to, and whether the fire within a person is stronger than anything else.
The film begins with a quote from the architect of the unrealized Museum of Revolution project in Belgrade, stating that the museum's purpose is to preserve the truth about us. Ironically, instead of preserving it, the foundations of this unrealized building conceal the truth beneath rows of stairs and improvised roofs. It is certain that Richter achieved the idea of truth in the museum, but not the one that gives birth to unattainable perfection, but the truth that lies in the basement, beneath the ideals of European society. In the basement, like Milica, Mara, and Vera. The text on the screen is accompanied by a rustling sound, which will be a sonic hallmark of the film until the very end. Three heroines, three generations, and three perspectives on the world warm themselves by one fire and dream of the same freedom. The space they inhabit is depicted in darkness, with pre-apocalyptic beams of light, captured in static shots, accompanied by the rustling. Through these techniques, the director points out the repetition and monotony in their lives. The presence of rustling partly signifies alienation from the rest of the world or a loss of hearing to the problems surrounding us. Besides the rustling, the space they dwell in is full of sounds indicating that everything around them is decaying. Constant dripping, which disappears in summer, may be the last straw of helplessness in the heroines. Instead of facing it, people seek new solutions in the form of grand sensations like a classical music concert. In this sense, culture aims for social cohesion, but how to think in that direction when around the same stage are women who don't have their basic human needs met. Milica is a girl who, in conversations, shows her fiery character eager for knowledge, play, and control. Visually, her hair matches her character. The white root merging into dark hair ends suggests a kind of flame. Despite such a natural inclination, she is an obedient daughter who follows her mother. The camera becomes unstable to follow their movements along paths never defined. Unlike the interior, shown in static camera setups, it rushes after the characters in the exterior, especially the girl. Depending on the content of the shot, they are significantly long (interior) or often interrupted by cuts (the girl). Because she is such, elusive. The heroines are almost always shot in close-up, aiming to develop intimacy between the viewer and the main characters, but their faces are often in shadow or covered by hair. With such a paradox, the author wants to convey that this is not a story about them but about everyone whose lives have gone in the wrong direction and never managed to return. The dominant colors in the film are cold tones during winter, justified by the season. The only thing that separates from the bleakness is the fire that is kept burning all the time. Summer is depicted in vivid, almost uncomfortable colors of street lighting, which even creates a sense of heat and stuffiness in the viewer. Through directorial techniques, intimacy of space and situation is achieved, primarily through conversations, such as those about money and the future, between Milica and Mara.
The girl Milica, with fire on and within herself, is a guide through the city that, from revolution and utopian ideals, bulldozed with its excavators what makes people human and extinguished the flame of the individual to stand before it. However, while new foundations are being laid on the concrete desert, which will be forgotten, Milica ponders her plans for the future, proving that the fire burns even without winter. The fire within her will not die out.