‘When the Phone Rang’ and ‘from where to where’ screen at Amherst Cinema – Massachusetts Daily Collegian

The first screenings of the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival kicked off at Amherst Cinema on April 1. Nada El-Omari’s “from where to where” and Iva Radivojević’s “When the Phone Rang” screened at 7 p.m. in Theater One to an intensely passionate and engaged audience.

This year’s festival marks the 33rd annual series of screenings and was organized by Ayanna Dozier, an assistant professor at UMass. The night commenced with an introduction from Dozier, who first expressed gratitude to both the Amherst Cinema team for hosting the opening night of the festival, as well as Program Director Barbara Zecchi, Office Manager Ian Sedelow and the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival interns.

Dozier continued by explaining the power behind the selection of films not only for the night, but for the entirety of the month-long series, as well as the common theme of dislocation. She dove into the hardships faced by different countries affected by war and turmoil, highlighting the need for equal platforms for stories to be told, ultimately emphasizing the true power of film.

Dozier’s selection of films is entirely directed by women — centering on the struggles and turmoils imposed by oppressive societal authorities. The festival’s website explains that the selection of films “pays close attention to how women negotiate their labor, sexuality, leisure, and communities … ” within societies dominated by systemic white supremacy, entrenched patriarchal power and rigid institutional hierarchies.

Dozier closed her introduction by drawing attention to the directors’ absence, tragically ironic given the tensions between America and other countries, immigration barriers, transportation limitations and country-based political conflicts.

El-Omari’s 2021 experimental short film “from where to where” screened first. The film felt meditative and contemplative, as the audience was exposed to warm and out-of-focus shots of people cooking and making tea, nature and landscapes. The shots felt dreamlike due to their hazy nature and nostalgic color grading.

El-Omari is of Palestinian and Egyptian descent, yet resides in Montreal, Quebec. The film’s dreamlike and hazy vibe accentuates El-Omari’s ability to highlight the themes of dislocation and otherness embedded within her identity.

“From where to where” was paired with overlays of plum-colored text in Arabic, French and English reciting poetic commentary revolving around identity, relationships and swans. El-Omari’s family’s voices took over the background noise throughout the reflective short, giving a warm and familiar tone to the short film’s poetic nature.

“When the Phone Rang” followed “from where to where” after a brief prerecorded virtual introduction from Radivojević. Radivojević reiterated that it was “painfully ironic” that she was not able to attend the festival in person and introduce her own film due to the political conflicts restricting travel in today’s political environment.

The 2024 Serbian film follows the seemingly constant dislocation of an 11-year-old girl named Lana’s monotonous daily life in 1992. “When the Phone Rang” opens with Lana picking up her house phone at 10:36 a.m. on a Friday, when she is told that her grandfather has passed away. Lana’s character lacks most inherent emotions, acting as a vessel for the audience to insert themselves into Radivojević’s introspective and seemingly mundane film.

The film itself unfolds nonlinearly, steering away from any coherent plot developments or storylines. Embodied in the film’s poetic pacing, Radivojević constantly revisits the shot leading up to Lana’s grandfather’s death with a stagnant, close-up shot of a clock; she weaves the shot between scenes of Lana acting as a normal child, playing with friends, watching movies and causing chaos, emphasizing the repetitive nature of memory.

The audience essentially lives the life of Lana for 74 minutes, only seeing her life through her own perspective and experience. Adults are hardly shown, as the film focuses on Lana and two other children and teenagers, one of whom constantly huffs glue.

“When the Phone Rang” is inspired by the breakup of Yugoslavia at the time of Radivojević’s own childhood, yet Radivojević chooses to call Lana’s country “X,” providing an open interpretation of the  film’s meaning and its relevancy to any nation affected by turmoil and constant relocation.

“From where to where” and “When the Phone Rang” embodied a meditative tone, reflecting on general conflict and themes of dislocation and otherness in our modern political landscape through beautiful and dream-like depictions of life in these times of turmoil. The rest of the screenings for the 33rd annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival will be shown for free in ILC S240 at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in April, with each night featuring a full-length film and a short film.

Crissy Saucier can be reached at [email protected].