Movie: The Secret of the School Choir
Genre: Drama, Short Film
Director: Christopher Dick
Starring: Zsófia Szamosi, Dolka Hayes, Dolka Gasparfavi
Release date: February 28, 2016 in Hungary
Award: 89th Academy Awards for Best Live-Action Short Film
The Secret of the School Choir is a children's short film released in Hungary in February 2016 and won the 89th Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film.
This short film reminds me of many European national films I have watched, such as "The Crack" starring Iringeva, which mainly tells the tragic story of adolescent children in boarding girls' schools who bring out the dark and violent side of human nature in the case of closed and lack of social experience. There is also the Danish film "The Hunt", which tells the story of a precocious young girl who lies to everyone, revealing to us the meaning of the crowd's shoveling of gold. There is also the Spanish film "The Invisible Guest", a story in which the families of the victims seek the truth and choose to redeem themselves, and the rhythm of the plot lines is impressive.
Thinking of this, it seems to feel the temperate oceanic climate of Western European countries that are mild and humid all year round, and the deep historical and cultural origins, where the people are calm and peaceful. The stories under the lens are always cold and profound, which makes people think philosophically.
"The Secret of the School Choir" is about Budapest, Hungary in the 1990s, where the little girl Sofia transferred to a new school and joined the dream choir, but was told by the teacher that she could only "silently sing" because she did not sing well, and did not expect that many children had the same experience as her. Until one day, one of her classmates discovered the secret, and the children united and all "silently sang" during the competition.
The short film ends with the children's "victory" and the teacher's "defeat", but I didn't feel any joy of victory. Geographical differences aside, I think many people have had similar experiences before and have been told that individuals should be subordinate to the collective. Although the film is only about 25 minutes, it reveals many themes that deserve our deep consideration, one is how to deal with the relationship between the individual and the collective, how to satisfy the will of the individual and the interests of the collective? The second is how to deal with the relationship between vested interests and seeking truth from facts, and whether it can be falsified for the sake of so-called collective honor? The third is whether individuals should expose the improper phenomena that exist in the collective, is this an act that deviates from the collective?
Let's just say a few words, I can't say it well. It couldn't be simpler for the short film to deal with this problem from a child's point of view, choosing "authenticity" of course, satisfying the right of everyone in the choir to sing, whether or not the tradition of the choir's winning has always been maintained. But for adults, it's hard, whether the individual is right or not, and when defying the collective is "betrayal," which is fatal for people living in groups.
As the choir teacher told the children, "Life is not always fair. "Although people often say that people have to adapt to the environment instead of changing the environment, and learn to self-regulate, is it not in this process that people begin to compromise and give in without any lower limits? For example, if you don't tell the truth, if you don't tell the truth, what causes everyone to fall into a collective unconscious state?
I have not experienced the living environment in European countries, and if I feel a little bit, I will be able to say it more accurately, I believe that everyone has their own judgment.