QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN

Tthis is a movie that can be summarised in one word: “beautiful”. Stunningly, devastatingly, achingly beautiful. Shot in India, director Takashi Sugimoto presents a nation that prioritises the collective over the individual. And in this country, women are recognised for their virtues and services in a large commune that allows everyone to partake. It’s like watching a realisation of socialism on a film screen. Hollywood, eat your heart out!

Stylistically, Black Gold shares a great deal in common with dirty classic Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956) in that it presents a country known for kaleidoscopic colours in stark black and white. Both films are more concerned with civilisation as a changing life force than with presenting the country in technicolour glory. If there is a plot, it mostly concerns Saraswathi, a villager who tends to her daughter’s hair with ritualistic aplomb. Unlike Western circles, hair isn’t a fashion accessory: the Narikurava tribe collect it as a form of currency. Far from the world of stockbrokers and businessmen comes an idyllic way of life that centres on what is right, and what is human.

Taking a more minimalistic standpoint, Sugimoto lets the environment breathe on the screen. Viewers are invited into this world, a place where nobody pretends to be anything they are not supposed to be, or do anything that doesn’t suit the collective. Bravely, Sugimoto lets the camera record a person designing an artwork on the ground. It lasts the best part of two minutes, which would often be shrunk in a documentary, but it adds a dreamlike quality to the proceedings; art has a practical usage in this society. It’s not for dressing, or for flashing. It holds a ceremonial property.

The sound design is incredible, capturing the hustle and bustle of rural India: winds, traffic, coughs. At little more than an hour and a half, Black Gold crams a lot in, placing particular interest in the women who run the place. A woman places her hair on a weighing scale, and is told it’s worth “20 grammes.” She qualifies this calculation against the products she wishes to acquire from the seller in question.

This documentary could be construed as holistic cinema, delving deep into the mindsets of the local inhabitants in question. Montages of men sleeping under trees are followed by portraits of fathers throwing water on their unsuspecting sons. These families look after one another, generations passing traits onto the next student. These passions are developed mercilessly, but with tremendous care to form.

Considering the statues on display, it’s easy to assume that these inhabitants are Hindu, but the central focus of nature is actually more commonly found in Japanese culture than Indian. Sugimoto allows some of his native country’s idiosyncrasies to flesh out the documentary, which strangely adds another dimension to the craft: one that is gentle and weirdly lyrical. The balance of cultural sensibilities deepens the narrative, bringing this world to greater heights. That Sugimoto captures a colour where there is none onscreen is further testament to his vision.

This Japanese-directed and India-set Portuguese production presents an interesting alternative way of life to the one commonly enjoyed in the Western hemisphere. Bolstered by daily activities, the community congregates, thrives and celebrates their standings. By placing the camera on the citizens in question, Sugimoto curates something that is rich with possibility, concrete with humanity, and delightfully fragile in resolve and contradiction. What with the culture, the demonstrations of hair and the exhibition of female strength this world feels like it’s one that would be enticing to behold and live in. Black Gold is directed with ambition, and the outcome is indeed golden.

Black Gold just premiered in the brand new Doc@PÖFF section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival