In the middle of the Ocsko flea market, at a round table with beer and steaming soup, writer Goran Mrakić and cultural mediator Florin Bandula talk to locals about movies, lives and forgotten objects. One name unites them: Aki Kaurismäki. The Finnish director, famous for his shabby bars, accordion music and uncomplaining proletarian heroes, is honored at the Ocsko Cinematheque with the documentary Cinema de notre temps (dir. Guy Girard) and two of his masterpieces: Shadows in Paradise (1986) and The Man Without a Past (2002).
In this backdrop of old jackets, dismantled radios and empty checkerboards, the world of Kaurismäki's films meets the people of Mehala. It's the same aesthetic, the same harsh, silent melancholy. Everything is real, nothing is premeditatedly cool. Here, the periphery becomes a universal language and the collectors of stories and old objects are the main characters.
The post-screening discussions, moderated by Bandula and spiced by Mrakić's ironic and empathetic observations, are DocuMentor Association's contribution to the celebration of Timișoara. An homage to the emotional memory of the city and its simple people, over a beer, between two informal auctions of forgotten objects.
