sparta (w&d ulrich seidl, w. veronika franz)

Having now seen three of his films, it seems to fair to make the call that Ulrich Seidl is one of the most transgressive directors at work, making movies that others wouldn’t dare to. Sparta is no exception. There are scenes in the film which are as transgressive in modern western society as almost anything you can get away with. To have as your protagonist a pedophile is obviously a bold step, but to then have him wander round naked in the showers as his prey (or are they) frolic in their trunks is to take it one stage further. Having said which, perhaps the most transgressive thing Sparta does is seek to humanise Ewald, the wealthy man-child at the film’s heart. The film shows us Ewald embracing his inner child on the swings, joining a snowball fight, identifying more with the children than the adults, a kind of Wordsworthian monster, before he gets to open his Sparta academy where he grooms one young boy in particular. At the same time, the Sparta he creates is a kind of haven for the boys, a place where they can act out their childish games, play at being gladiators, scream and holler as much as they like. The dark turn we keep expecting the film to take is only ever insinuated at; if it happens it is never disclosed. Perhaps Ewald, caught up in the shadow of his senile Nazi father, is just a harmless fantasist? Or perhaps not. At the same time, it seems relevant that Ewald preys on Romanian children, which could be a metaphor for the way that the rich prey on the weak, or could be a more direct commentary on the expansionist economics of Germany and Austria, a hangover of other expansionist policies who the senile father embodies. Seidl’s film might have been accused of being exploitative, were it not for its disciplined edit and rigorous cinematography. The framing by Wolfgang Thaler is always thought provoking: an interplay of architecture, image and sensation. The edit breaks the dramatic tension as much as ramping it up. The film succeeds in being both deadening and dramatically tense at the same time, a curious and admirable achievement, which might be said to reflect the modern condition.