Smoczynska’s Hot Spot

At least Skynet was honest about wanting to eradicate humanity in the Terminator films. Arguably, the AI Big Brother known as “The Head” in this dystopian film is worse, because it strives to keep mankind dependent and unthinking. Djonny is one of its tools. He investigates crimes, including the “anti-social” variety, as well as the murder that brings him to a refugee camp in Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Hot Spot, which is now playing in theaters.

Global warming, resource depletion, blah, blah, blah. That is what happened according to the Head, if you trust it. The NeoSoul do not. Hooking up to an AI nanny state violates their beliefs, so they refuse. Of course, that makes it awkward for them as asylum-seekers, fleeing a foreign war. One of the NeoSoul was discovered murdered, in a grisly, ritualistic manner, so Djonny has been assigned the case.

Investigating the NeoSoul case constitutes a good break for Djonny. Apparently, he had been on the outs with the Head, so he now has the opportunity to regain its good graces. It is never explained why he fell out of favor, but viewers might guess it has something to do with his wife Ayka. Although she is connected, she is about as Head-skeptical as someone in this society can get and still function from day to day. In fact, she disconnects when she performs as a pseudo-underground vocalist. She also tries to block their son Zen’s reception when the Head broadcasts executions of criminals.

Perhaps she and Rana, a spiritual leader among the NeoSoul, are kindred spirits. In fact, they might just forge a psychic connection, ironically partly through Djonny’s mental link, that could be dangerous to everyone.

According to Smoczynska, viewers should check their logic at the door—and she isn’t kidding. Hot Spot makes Zardoz look like Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Sone familiarity with cyberpunk will help viewers recognize the sf elements at work, but even though Djonny and Deckard are both investigators (of a sort), the film shares little stylistic kinship with Blade Runner.

Shot on location in post-crisis Greece, Hot Spot vividly shows the cost of years of socialist stagnation. The locations—crumbling brutalist architecture, retro-futuristic cathedrals to bureaucracy, and an abandoned airport that really did serve as a refugee camp in real life—are  eerily surreal.

In fact, it is hard to draw any conclusions from Robert Bolesto’s out-there screenplay, considering it presents two competing visions of creepy collectivism. There is the hive-mind deliberate dependency fostered by the Head, versus the uniformity and mass chanting and swaying practiced by the extremely tribal NeoSoul.

Consequently, individuals are largely overshadowed by Smoczynska’s grim post-freedom vision. Noomi Rapace is tragically under-employed, staring out into space (or into the emptiness of our souls) as Rana. The deliberately clueless way Andrzej Konopka self-consciously struts through the film quickly starts to feel sad, like watching Roger Clinton trying to perform like Elvis.

By far, the boldest and most arresting work comes from Reika Kirishima, whose prosthetic makeup will shock and alarm viewers accustomed to tamer fare. She conveys Ayka’s complexity and bravely bares her scars. Frankly, she suggests such greater depth than Djonny, they seem mismatched as a couple.

Smoczynska is a daring filmmaker, but Hot Spot lacks the oddball charm of her “greatest hit,” The Lure. However, both films display a talent for immersing the audience in a bizarre world. Unfortunately, Smoczynska and Bolesto lose control of the weirdness, allowing it to lapse into opacity for its own sake. Only recommended for fans of sf at its most surreal, Hot Spot is now playing in theaters, including the Village East in New York.