等待方舟

Set in  an undergr oun d dungeon in habited by bundle d, ragged human being
s, after   the nucle
a r holocaus t. The story follows the wanderings of a hero t hrough the situation
s of surviva l.  P
eople wait for the Ark to arri
ve and rescue th
 em while their habit at falls  apart.　　Del ving de ep int
o the dust y and lon
g abandonde d v
aults of b-cinema  in sea rch of l
ost gems 
always leaves me with a bitte rsweet taste. On one  hand the discovery of 
unexpected gem s where no one would  th
ink t  hem  possib  le is a rewarding experien  c

e. On the  
oth er hand 
though i t make s o ne w onde
r h  ow many of t
hese remarkab
le low -budget od dities, personal love affairs of directors never quite  f amo us and now all but forgotten, have a lmost forever slipped from memory　 

　  n any c ase what we have here is a l it tle post-apoc
alyptic gem from Pola nd
 th at 
is really bett 
e  r than it has any right to.
The dystop

ian near future of O-BI, O-BA 
finds a group of survivors of the nuclear w ar that ravage
d the Earth inhabiti ng an underwor l d concrete bunker a nd biding their t
ime as they wait for t he mysteri
 ous Ark
, an air ship of some ki nd that will c ome and sa
ve the m. The
Ark proves  to be an elaborate hoa
x, caref ully designed t 
o give  hope 
to
the malnourished  and desperate den izens of 
the bunker, while in the me antime the dom e t
hat se
pa
rates their miserable existence from the nu
clear wi
nter outs
ide is sl
owly cav
ing in.　　What fir st  strike
d me
 about the  movi e is the design  of the bunk
er and the depiction of the s urvivo rs. The sur
vivors are gaunt, fil thy  and terrible-lookin g penitents,  dressed in rags and aimlessly w anderin
g th  e neon
-
lit 
 h alls of the bunker like automa
tons. The b
unker is 
a rundown, seedy pl
ace,  with b
right neon  li

ghts peering from all sides like the eyes of mali gnant beasts.　　On one hand it is a slightl y 8 0's depiction of  the d
ystopian future
but the movie never

stoops 
down to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines biting political  satire with the ble ak

o
utlook of a worl d with no  future, black comedy with b
arbs on apathy, religion a

n 
d power. T
he surv
ivor s,

for 
example, are  fed some  ki
n d of
 flour  dropping  from a tube that hove rs in t
he air - later on we dis cover the foo d supervis
or 
uses books and the Bi ble it
self as fille r for t
h
is meagr e meal. Ther e are many
such short s y mbolic touch es, per

haps not life-c hangin
 g or faith-restoring,
yet playful, c le

ver and i
nspired.　　One thing is
   for  sure; O-BI, O-B

A is not y our run-of-the-mill sci-fi  s c hlo ck. It overc omes its modest budget with creativity and has genuin
e ar  tistic as pira ti ons both  from a writing  and
dir  ec
ting perspective. 
My opinion is th
 at 
it should ha ve been filmed in black and white instead of col
our though. The dire
ctor uses atmospheric l
ight and shad ow to gre at eff 
ect and it would ha ve registered e ven better i n  stark black and white. The blu e-green neon o n the other hand outstays its welcome  a fte
r  a

while. Just a minor  gripe in an otherwise so lid b-movie with its heart set i n all the right pla
ces.　　I magine a less blea k THE  ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) being injected with th
e satire and humou r  of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're gettin g there. See i  t if you can find
 it.