A smart combination of avant-garde experimental film art with disturbing reportage of a real life incident that dominated news channels for some time, media artist and filmmaker Jan Ijäs’ film is both intriguing and watchable. While the title is perhaps more provocative than the content, the film moves easily and even attempts levity to balance to the darker aspects.
Screening as part of the Swiss docfest’s International Medium Length & Short Film Competition, the film follows the story of journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi and his disappearance after he entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, to apply for a divorce in order to remarry.
For the purposes of the film, Khashoggi is only ever referred to as ‘Mr K’, just as the woman he was to marry is ‘Mrs C’ and Donald Trump is ‘President T’.
As narrated by Rebecca Clamp, the film details the events surrounding the macabre and mysterious events around his story. It is told along the timeline of the news reportage, utilising quotes from newspapers and news radio, rather than the timeline of the actual killing, which seems justifiable given that there remains lack of clarity around what happened, and where the body may have finally ended up.
Belgrade Forest Incident…and What Happened to Mister K attempts at being challenging with the reference to Belgrad Forest (as it is traditionally spelled), a beauty spot close to Istanbul which was suggested as a possible spot where a body might have been found. It allows for nice ‘footage’ of a dark car in the woods, but in essence it really leads nowhere.
The films presents itself as a cinematographical investigation, though rather than actually investigating is actually re-incorporating audio material and setting it against found footage, images of words typed on coloured paper, fogged and grainy material in the forest and locations around Istanbul.
Media artist and film director Jan Ijäs defines his work a blend of avant-garde, experimental media art and documentary filmmaking, and his films have been screened at more than 200 Finnish and international film festivals and as installations in museums and art galleries. Belgrade Forest Incident…and What Happened to Mister K, which had its international premiere at Visions du Réel, seems an easy fit for more festivals and the shrewd and experimental visuals provide a provocative balance to the highly disturbing subject matter.
Finland, 2021, 30mins
Dir/scr/ed Jan Ijäs
Producer Jan Ijäs
Production AV-arkki, Atalante Oy
International sales Raina Film Festival Distribution
Cinematography Ville Piippo, Jan Ijäs
Music Mikko Viljakainen (aka Vilunki 3000)
Narration Rebecca Clamp
Sound design Svante Colerus, Jan Ijäs
