“… The time in which we live, at the moment, uniquely qualifies for moral anxiety. What other time could be more anxious about morality than the one we are in now? (…) where in our history are we now? (…) This year (at the film festival) there were few films that would concern the world in which we live and which we still do not understand, we still have contradictory feelings about it, contradictory information. We need not only an explanation of this world, but also an opportunity to experience this world and get to know the point of view of other people than us.” Tomasz Raczek
Exactly five years ago I was a volunteer at the Gdynia Film Festival. Certainly, no one expected the reality in which we would find ourselves in five years. There was no such vision even in sci-fi movies. For a year and a half, fear and the belief that we cannot be sure of anything have been oozing in us. Still in hospitals, people die of loneliness, who are prevented from leaving for another world in the arms of their loved ones. We are still not sure if we are safe when we discover the face. We still don’t know what to believe. We still have more questions than answers in our heads.
Added to all this is the fear of taking sides. A permanent sense of manipulation and confusion squeezes tears out of impotence. You can count more and more new authorities. The hope of a return to “normality” is ruined. In conversations with loved ones and the ones far away, taboo topics appear, and with them emotions and too loud and ill-considered thrown words, like a razor cutting off the remnants of threads that bind us to each other.
As under the magnifying glass,it is increasingly clear who is driven by fear, who sees hope in us – people, and who has peace of mind trusting in higher forces (whatever you call them here). Values change like in a kaleidoscope and we give the assessment of the situation and the establishment of rules of conduct to others. The planet is flooded with an ocean of used masks, but it is a “pandemic”.
The strangest thing was the last vacation. Suddenly, the reason for getting vaccinated was not safety, but the ability to travel or keep a job. And this avoidance on the streets of vaccinated (after all!) tourists. The old treasures have now been replaced by a covid passport – after all, this is the most valuable thing to protect. On the other hand, frightened pensioners with the dilemma of whether to safely meet their grandchildren during the holidays.
The feeling of isolation is drowned out by subsequent news from the “independent” media, although not a drop of peace is poured with them. We are left alone with the need to “explain this world, but also to have the opportunity to experience this world and get to know the point of view of other people than us”.
We remain in moral anxiety.
ps. from Polish films about the world in which we live, I recommend the film from 2020. “BETWEEN THE EYES”