The first film in the short film compilation Wild Tales (Damián Szifron, 2015) is simply titled Pasternak. This first film sets up the rest of the other films in the compilation, wild tales of catharsis and revenge.
Narrative Structure
Pasternak follows a woman who gets on a plane at a busy airport in order to go to a work event. She meets a charming man on the plane and they begin to chat and eventually realise that they both knew a man named Gabriel Pasternak. Then more and more people overhear the conversation and realise that they too knew Gabriel Pasternak at one point or another and that each and every one of them had wronged him in some way. Then something begins to go wrong on the plane and they find out that Pasternak himself was flying the plane, before their lives are all ended along with Pasternak’s parents as he crashes the plane into the ground.
The narrative structure of Pasternak is relatively simple, all of the editing is linear and events take place one after another. This means that the audience finds out information at the same time as the characters which allows the situation to flow naturally and helps to build tension until the final twist is revealed.
The film mostly follows the traditional three act structure but in a much more condensed form. The first act is introduces the woman getting onto the plane, the second act (rising action) is as the people on the plane slowly realise that they all know Gabriel Pasternak and the 3rd act is Gabriel Pasternak crashing the plane and killing everyone on board and his parents. The third act is slightly different to the traditional crisis and falling action however, since this short film has no rising action and ends with the crisis of the plane hitting the ground. This means that the last thing the viewer sees is the terrified old couple which sticks with them and makes the film and its messaging more memorable.
Cinematic Influences
One important bit of historical context for Pasternak is the 2001 attacks, alo known as 9/11. On 9/11 several terrorists hijacked 4 planes across America, crashing two of them into the twin towers, 1 into the pentagon and the fourth plane was crashed into the ground by passengers in order to prevent further deaths. These attacks sparked panic across the world about the safety of aeroplanes and how they could be used to carry out horrible acts of violence. Before 9/11 nobody ever thought that someone would hijack a plane and crash it. This makes the events of Pasternak especially frightening for both the passengers on board and the audience since both immediately knew what Pasternak’s plan was once they had found out that he had hijacked the plane. It means that the audience would find this scary as it mirrors real life events that ave actually happened. If you showed this to someone before 9/11, they would find it far less impactful and may not even realise what Pasternak’s plan was before it was directly shown to them.
One particularly memorable moment in Pasternak is when the shot freezes for a couple of seconds right before Pasternak’s parents are hit by the plane. This is particularly memorable because it does something that isn’t often doe in films, choosing to show the moment right before the violence rather than the violence itself. It allows the viewer to imagine themselves what specifically happens and overall makes the film much, much more memorable.
An effective way in which the film uses cinematography is the slow, steady camera movement in the first portion juxtaposed with the shaky, uncaring movements later in the film. This was particularly effective because it emphasises how sudden and shocking the twist that Pasternak had hijacked the plane was.
During the first portion of the film, Pasternak conforms to the genre features of a ‘strangers finding love’ type film which is a common theme in short films. The film shows a random woman in a public place having an encounter with a charming man, along with warm lighting and dialogue heavy scenes. The films does this to further mislead and manipulate the viewer into thinking that this will be a much different film than what it really is. It also places much more emphasis on the films twist when Pasternak hijacks the plane and makes it genuinely surprising upon first viewing.
Creating Meaning and Effect
Creating meaning and effect is largely done through the use of representation and aesthetics. When it comes to Aesthetics, Pasternak is fairly generic. The film uses a relatively bland colour palette and the actors are pretty much just acting how normal people would. I believe this is done on purpose to make this feel like an event that could actually happen. This isn’t some unimaginable story that could only play out on the big screen- this is something that could actually happen. This really solidifies the message that our actions towards random people in our lives can have a genuine effect on then and cause them to lash out.
When it comes to representations the film specifically decides to only portray Gabriel Pasternak through the words of other people and his actions at the end of the film. This was incredibly impactful and made Pasternak feel like someone who doesn’t really matter or even exist, just like how we often treat people we meet throughout our lives. When it is revealed that Pasternak has hijacked the plane, the illusion that this person almost doesn’t exist is shattered and the actions of the passengers culminate in their violent deaths.