Review: The issue is misplaced

About his latest documentary This issue is misplaced [+lee también:
tráiler
entrevista: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
ficha de la película]It was shown in the international competition in Locarno Film Festival And the all-new Green Leopard WWF winner (Read newsletter), Nicholas Gerhalter He definitely didn’t choose the most attractive topic. The issue of waste, the smells they emit, and the connection to the inevitable process of decomposition you are exposed to, is not only repugnant but also and above all uncomfortable. Their existence is undeniable but often strategically denied on the margins of our minds as something vaguely shameful. So Nicholas Gerhalter surprises us, by showing us firsthand what we produce without complexes and without caring much who they are going to deal with. The indifference with which the director turns waste into pure beauty is frightening and intriguing.

Nicholas Gerhalter used to catch us by surprise, and he never stopped disrupting our view of the world, the way we interact with the planet and its resources. Without becoming a mere accused of exploitation that is now evident, the Austrian director prefers to detonate a mechanism that reveals all its tragic nature, leaving the viewer free to interpret what they see. From the close monitoring of industrial food production in Our daily bread (2005), to explore places completely abandoned by man (sane man [+lee también:
tráiler
entrevista: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
ficha de la película]), to the latest a land [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
ficha de la película]Confronted with our constant need to own a space that does not belong to us, Geyrhalter urges viewers to consider the face of reality they would rather forget.

What makes the Austrian director’s films particularly interesting, which we find in his latest films This issue is misplaced, is their ability to remain light and even playful in spite of the seriousness of the subjects they deal with – shocking viewpoints that more forcefully proclaim the absurdity of what they show us. like its predecessors, This issue is misplaced It is a film that makes us uncomfortable because it confronts us with the aesthetic beauty of production practices, those of waste, which are undoubtedly the subject of condemnation. Beauty and horror (associated with the inevitable consequences of our actions) are an elegant duo, forcing us to observe a conscious reality often (conveniently) overlooked. Turning waste into art surely requires courage and a good dose of nerve, which is something this director seems undoubtedly possessed.

“Out of sight, out of mind,” says a German researcher at the beginning of the film, pointing to the mountain of rubbish hidden beneath a green field used for decades as a landfill—a line (one of the few in a movie) in and of itself that could sum up the entire movie. Geyrhalter indeed depicts situations and characters from the shadows that let our waste go almost unnoticed, the people who take our guilt to account by letting the corrupt and brutal teens we’ve come to play as we please with nature’s resources.

From the German scientists at the beginning of the film, to the activists organizing globally to try to clean up the planet, to the megacity (possibly Indian) city-sweepers trying to clean up giant cities by the cynical means of getting rid of them, to the high-tech waste disposal of the Valais ski resort, without To forget the divers and cleaners at a gigantic rave party in the desert, the situations multiply, more and more impressive. Geyrhalter opens our eyes to a submerged world that represents everyday life to many, and he does so with a precision that fascinates and inspires.

This issue is misplaced Produced by Nicholas Gerhalter FilmProduction It is sold internationally by Autolook Filmsales.